Thursday, October 11, 2007
Calls for Burial of Lenin's Body
Yahoo! News reports that a referendum is being called for to determine whether the embalmed body of Vladimir Lenin, housed in a mausoleum in Red Square for more than 80 years, should be removed and buried. Since the fall of the Soviet government, top officials such as Vladimir Putin have been calling for consideration of whether the shrine to the Bolshevik revolutionary is appropriate.
FOREVER LENIN focuses on the reasons behind and the process of embalming Lenin as well as the maintenance required for the body and budgetary problems plaguing it today. Labels: history, Putin, Russia
Arrests in Anna Politkovskaya's Murder
The Russian journalist is featured in
DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE, and we have been following the case of her murder closely. The Associated Press
reports that "Russia on Monday announced that 10 people have been arrested in the killing of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, including law enforcement officers and a Chechen crime boss accused of organizing the slaying."
Labels: Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya, journalism, Putin, Russia
Independent Journalists in Russia (or lack of)
Anna Politkovskaya was an independent journalist working in Russia reporting mostly on the conflict with Chechnya. Her writing frequently condemned the government and police for corruption. She was assassinated in 2006 and her murder, among many murders of journalists there, remains unsolved. As reported in the Times,
Colleagues Honor Slain Russian Journalist With a Book and Demand Justice, her son Ilya, former editor Dmitri Murtov and Mikhail Gorbachev, owner of the paper she wrote for, Novaya Gazeta, have released a volume of Politkovskaya's writings in an effort to renew attention to the shrinking voices of independents in Russia.
DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE explores working reporters, including Politkovskaya before her death, working around the world as they
defend journalistic principles against commercial pressures, deal with censorship or government constraints, as well as dangerous and even life-threatening conditions.Labels: Anna Politkovskaya, articles, Chechnya, independent media, journalism, Russia
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Opposing the Kremlin?A recent spate of high-profile assassinations of Russians, including journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was shot outside her home and ex K.G.B agent-in-exile Alexander Litvinenko, done in by a lethal dose of radioactive polonium 210, are the subject of a new
New Yorker article by Michael Specter,
Kremlin, Inc.: Why are Vladimir Putin's opponents dying? Tania Rakhmanova’s new film
HOW PUTIN CAME TO POWER explores the meteoric rise to power of this once unknown F.S.B. (the modern K.G.B.) agent and sets the stage for the Specter’s investigation of Putin’s current administration.
Labels: articles, Kremlin, Putin, Russia
Russian Journalist Anna Politkovskaya Slain
DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE is a documentary about the danger and other challenges faced by journalists across the world, and journalists' essential role in democracy, features a 20 minute segment on Politkovskaya. It is now being released in honor of Politkovskaya's courageous work.
Labels: activism, Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya, media, Russia
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Russia's Hermitage Says Staff Took Part in $4.9 Million Theft
Our acclaimed, award-winning documentary
THE HERMITAGE DWELLERS as much about the people who work in Russia's renowned museum as it is about the glorious art housed in this St. Petersburg institution. We meet with several "Hermitage-niks" -- including Olga Bogdanova, the head of museum maintenance, icon curator Alexandra Kostsova, museum attendant Valentina Barbashova, and art handler Vadim Kuptsov, among others -- each of whom explains their own very personal reasons for considering the palace of Catherine the Great their "home."
Labels: art, articles, Hermitage, Russia
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