http://www.voanews.com Voice of America is an international news and broadcast organization serving Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia, the Middle East and Balkan countries http://www.voanews.com/img/voa/rssLogo_VOA.gif http://www.voanews.com en-US 2012 - VOA 60 Sun, 19 May 2013 03:45:09 -0400 Pangea CMS – VOA Russian soldiers, tanks and rockets paraded across the cobblestones of Red Square on Thursday in the Kremlin’s annual display of the nation’s military might.   The parade was first held 68 years ago to celebrate the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. Today it is a carefully choreographed event to remind Russians -- and the world -- that the country remains a major military power.   President Vladimir Putin reviewed the troops and addressed the nation, declaring: “We will do ... http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-kremlin-moscow-red-square-military-parade/1657829.html http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-kremlin-moscow-red-square-military-parade/1657829.html Thu, 09 May 2013 12:15:04 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-kremlin-moscow-red-square-military-parade/1657829.html#relatedInfoContainer After 18 months of chilly relations with Washington, the Kremlin gave a warm welcome Tuesday to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Signaling a clear change in tone, President Putin was filmed for national television welcoming the new American Secretary of State. "I think it is very important that our key ministries and agencies, including the foreign ministry, cooperate in finding solutions for the most topical and relevant issues of today’s world," the Russian President told ... http://www.voanews.com/content/us-envoy-kerry-arrives-in-russia/1655948.html http://www.voanews.com/content/us-envoy-kerry-arrives-in-russia/1655948.html Tue, 07 May 2013 03:09:46 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/us-envoy-kerry-arrives-in-russia/1655948.html#relatedInfoContainer One year after Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as president of Russia for the third time, opposition leader Alexei Navalny led protesters in chanting “Putin Thief.”   While the white ribbons, iPads and anti-Putin placards were reminders of the big protests of last year, Monday’s long-awaited rally was marred by tragedy.   Hours before protesters arrived, a tower of loudspeakers fell over, killing a volunteer. Navalny was forced to speak through a bullhorn, his words reaching only ... http://www.voanews.com/content/alexei-navalny-russians-protest-vladmir-putin/1655753.html http://www.voanews.com/content/alexei-navalny-russians-protest-vladmir-putin/1655753.html Mon, 06 May 2013 16:45:48 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/alexei-navalny-russians-protest-vladmir-putin/1655753.html#relatedInfoContainer When a gay group held a film festival in Moscow in April, there were the usual anti-gay protesters. But this time, there was an unexpected visitor: a policeman armed with a Kalashnikov, checking ID’s.  Later this month, Russia’s Duma is expected to give final approval to a vaguely worded bill that would ban "homosexual propaganda" accessible to minors.   Despite protests, the bill won nearly unanimous approval in a preliminary vote last January.  Last month, France ... http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-law-gay-propaganda/1655417.html http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-law-gay-propaganda/1655417.html Mon, 06 May 2013 11:19:46 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-law-gay-propaganda/1655417.html#relatedInfoContainer One year ago, on May 7, Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin to serve another term as president, after a four-year stretch out of the spotlight as Russia’s prime minister. Angry protests greeted his return, and his inauguration motorcade flew through the empty streets of Moscow, emptied by a five-day holiday and by riot police flown in from as far away as Siberia.   Today, analysts say President Putin spent his first year methodically cracking down on Russia’s opposition. This ... http://www.voanews.com/content/political-crackdown-marks-putin-first-year-back-in-kremlin/1654197.html http://www.voanews.com/content/political-crackdown-marks-putin-first-year-back-in-kremlin/1654197.html Fri, 03 May 2013 14:37:39 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/political-crackdown-marks-putin-first-year-back-in-kremlin/1654197.html#relatedInfoContainer In the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, the Yale Russian Chorus came to Moscow to break the ice between the Soviet Union and the United States. Fast forward 50 years and Americans and Russians are once again using music to defrost the chill between their two countries. The turn to culture comes as relations between the two nations have hit their low point since the end of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Prokhorov is a leading Russian businessman and opposition politician. He owns the ... http://www.voanews.com/content/russians-and-americans-build-musical-bridges/1650736.html http://www.voanews.com/content/russians-and-americans-build-musical-bridges/1650736.html Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:46:22 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/russians-and-americans-build-musical-bridges/1650736.html#relatedInfoContainer Russian President Vladimir Putin has often complained that he battles alone against terrorism by Islamic extremists. Putin called on Washington and Moscow Thursday to share security information to fight terrorism.  He said the need for unity was illustrated by the Boston bombings, which U.S. law enforcement authorities say were carried about by ethnic Chechens on American soil. ​He said if that if Moscow and Washington truly join forces, “we will not allow these strikes and suffer such ... http://www.voanews.com/content/putin-urges-cooperation-with-us-against-terrorism/1648532.html http://www.voanews.com/content/putin-urges-cooperation-with-us-against-terrorism/1648532.html Thu, 25 Apr 2013 07:45:13 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/putin-urges-cooperation-with-us-against-terrorism/1648532.html#relatedInfoContainer Russia’s top opposition leader went on trial Wednesday in Kirov, a provincial capital nearly 1,000 kilometers northeast of his power base in Moscow. Last year, Alexei Navalny angered Russian President Vladimir Putin for leading mass street demonstrations in Russia’s capital. Navalny’s anti-corruption blog has drawn as many as a million views from Russia’s Internet savvy younger generation. The Wall Street Journal newspaper has called Navalny “the man Vladimir Putin fears most.” Wednesday in ... http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-opens-trial-against-top-opposition-leader/1648176.html http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-opens-trial-against-top-opposition-leader/1648176.html Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:18:41 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-opens-trial-against-top-opposition-leader/1648176.html#relatedInfoContainer Last week, two ethnic Chechen brothers apparently went on a bombing and shooting rampage in Boston. This week, security experts in Russia and the United States are debating why two years of warning signals apparently fell between the cracks. "If we are talking about sharing sensitive information - Russia and America are not very good at it,”  Andrei Soldatov said in Moscow, where he runs Agentura.ru, a website that studies Russia’s security services. In New York, Mark Galeotti ... http://www.voanews.com/content/us-russia-ponder-intel-failure-in-boston-bombing/1646633.html http://www.voanews.com/content/us-russia-ponder-intel-failure-in-boston-bombing/1646633.html Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:27:24 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/us-russia-ponder-intel-failure-in-boston-bombing/1646633.html#relatedInfoContainer Russian TV reported Friday that two ethnic Chechen brothers are suspects in terrorist bombings. But, for Russians, there was a new twist: the bombings were in Boston. In recent years, ethnic Chechens were charged in bombings of the Moscow metro, a Moscow airport and a train from Moscow. But this time, Russian reporters fleshed out the biographies of two young Chechen men, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, suspected of attacks in the United States. In Dagestan, a traditionally Islamic republic ... http://www.voanews.com/content/chechen-brothers-suspected-in-boston-bombings-grew-up-as-refugees/1645121.html http://www.voanews.com/content/chechen-brothers-suspected-in-boston-bombings-grew-up-as-refugees/1645121.html Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:35:01 -0400 Europe James Brooke Syria’s civil war has created more than one million refugees. Many live in border camps in Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon. But a lucky few are finding shelter on the Black Sea coast, in Abkhazia, a breakaway territory of Georgia. This sunny strip of beaches and forests once was called “Russia’s Riviera.” They are Syrian Abkhaz, coming home 150 years after the Russian czar deported their Muslim ancestors to the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern Turkey. Elbrus Abhaza was a French teacher ... http://www.voanews.com/content/syrian_refugees_go-home_to_former_russian_riviera/1642027.html http://www.voanews.com/content/syrian_refugees_go-home_to_former_russian_riviera/1642027.html Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:10:49 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/syrian_refugees_go-home_to_former_russian_riviera/1642027.html#relatedInfoContainer Russian President Vladimir Putin had a “positive” meeting in Moscow Monday with a top Obama Administration envoy, a Kremlin aide said.   Foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov said that he and President Putin talked about trade, missile defense and nuclear arms cuts with U.S. National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon.   Russia-American relations have been going through their coldest stretch since the Cold War era. The Kremlin accuses Washington of meddling in its internal affairs; ... http://www.voanews.com/content/kremlin-magnitsky-lists-obama-putin-lavrov-kerry-us-russia-relations/1641664.html http://www.voanews.com/content/kremlin-magnitsky-lists-obama-putin-lavrov-kerry-us-russia-relations/1641664.html Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:07:01 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/kremlin-magnitsky-lists-obama-putin-lavrov-kerry-us-russia-relations/1641664.html#relatedInfoContainer In the aftermath of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Russia recognized Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia, as a fully independent country. Then, Moscow funneled half a billion dollars into Russian air, naval and border defense bases in Abkhazia, an entity almost the size of Kosovo. Five years after this Russian-imposed peace, a quiet self-confidence is settling over this subtropical land on the Black Sea Coast. People speak Russian, use Russian rubles, carry Russian passports and receive ... http://www.voanews.com/content/protected-by-russia-abkhazia-cautiously-engages-georgia/1639126.html http://www.voanews.com/content/protected-by-russia-abkhazia-cautiously-engages-georgia/1639126.html Thu, 11 Apr 2013 06:40:59 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/protected-by-russia-abkhazia-cautiously-engages-georgia/1639126.html#relatedInfoContainer Russia chose one of its southernmost cities — subtropical Sochi — as its nominee for next year's Winter Olympics. Wowed by images of deep snow in the Caucasus Mountains, the International Olympic Committee voted yes — ahead of Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea.   Six years after winning the bid for hockey and figure skating events, everything is, as Russians say, “pod kontrolem,” or "under control." Enclosed rinks and ice-making technology guarantee indoor ice ... http://www.voanews.com/content/russian-sochi-2014-olympics-winter-games-snow-snowfall-weather/1634807.html http://www.voanews.com/content/russian-sochi-2014-olympics-winter-games-snow-snowfall-weather/1634807.html Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:32:39 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/russian-sochi-2014-olympics-winter-games-snow-snowfall-weather/1634807.html#relatedInfoContainer It is the largest construction site in Europe: 100,000 men and 500 companies are working around the clock. They are building hotels, skating rinks and ski jumps for next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, on Russia's southern Black Sea coast. After Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that construction would meet the deadlines for the February Olympics, fireworks greeted the president’s progress report. Oleg Krachenko manages the Bolshoy Ice Dome, a completed rink, where President ... http://www.voanews.com/content/russias-winter-olympics-to-break-spending-records/1633317.html http://www.voanews.com/content/russias-winter-olympics-to-break-spending-records/1633317.html Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:59:04 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/russias-winter-olympics-to-break-spending-records/1633317.html#relatedInfoContainer For years, construction companies in Cyprus lured Russians to invest in the Mediterranean island. Over the last decade, 40,000 Russians moved to Cyprus. They now make up five percent of the population. The lure, however, was more than just trading Moscow's cold winters for fun in the sun. Cyprus offered low taxes, low regulation, and the security of the euro zone. While the glass office towers of Moscow City, Moscow's new financial district, languish half-empty, Russians now have ... http://www.voanews.com/content/cyprus_crisis_burns_russian_investors/1630350.html http://www.voanews.com/content/cyprus_crisis_burns_russian_investors/1630350.html Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:41:30 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/cyprus_crisis_burns_russian_investors/1630350.html#relatedInfoContainer For the last decade, Russia has been the world’s largest energy exporter, sometimes called “the Saudi Arabia of the snows.” Now, many economists say that oil and gas revenues are dropping and that Russia is starting to re-industrialize. Post Soviet Russia is widely seen as an industrial rust belt. But here, in a new car making hub outside St. Petersburg, American car maker GM is investing to triple its production capacity. Romuald Rytwinski, GM’s Manufacturing Manager for Russia, says the ... http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-re-industrializes-as-energy-boom-fades/1626530.html http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-re-industrializes-as-energy-boom-fades/1626530.html Fri, 22 Mar 2013 07:41:13 -0400 Europe James Brooke When Russian nationalist skinheads chant against “the chyorni” — or “the blacks” — they protest Muslim immigrants from Central Asia.   But Africans in Moscow say they also can be targets.   For several African immigrants interviewed on a recent afternoon in the warmth of a Protestant church community center, Moscow is not welcoming to people of color.   Rukunayi Pitsou, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said 15 skinheads once chased him into a building. He only ... http://www.voanews.com/content/africans-moscow-racial-ethnic-harrassment-russia-soviet-skinheads-xenophobia/1621555.html http://www.voanews.com/content/africans-moscow-racial-ethnic-harrassment-russia-soviet-skinheads-xenophobia/1621555.html Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:56:34 -0400 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/africans-moscow-racial-ethnic-harrassment-russia-soviet-skinheads-xenophobia/1621555.html#relatedInfoContainer While the West seeks to isolate Iran over its disputed nuclear program, landlocked Armenia seeks to build relations with its neighbor - without violating international sanctions.  In all of Christian Armenia, there is only one mosque: "The Iranian Mosque," restored 15 years ago by Iran. The mosque offers classes in Persian and is an essential landmark for visiting Iranian VIPS, like Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He came to Yerevan 15 months ago to meet with ... http://www.voanews.com/content/iran-armenia-find-solidarity-in-isolation/1619833.html http://www.voanews.com/content/iran-armenia-find-solidarity-in-isolation/1619833.html Tue, 12 Mar 2013 07:16:12 -0400 Middle East James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/iran-armenia-find-solidarity-in-isolation/1619833.html#relatedInfoContainer As Syria’s civil war marks a two-year anniversary on March 15, the human cost will be more than 70,000 dead, one million refugees outside the country, and two million more people forced to find new shelter inside Syria.   One trickle of refugees has been a flow of 6,000 Armenian Christians, going north to a landlocked, mountainous country many never knew: their ancestral homeland of Armenia.   Many Armenians say they have been well treated by Syrians, the people who gave shelter to ... http://www.voanews.com/content/syria_armenians_return_to_ancestral_homeland_refugees_civil_war/1616308.html http://www.voanews.com/content/syria_armenians_return_to_ancestral_homeland_refugees_civil_war/1616308.html Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:50:47 -0500 Europe James Brooke http://www.voanews.com/content/syria_armenians_return_to_ancestral_homeland_refugees_civil_war/1616308.html#relatedInfoContainer