On December 22, 2017, President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov called “libel” the statement by the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) (created by Alexei Navalny, the charismatic leader of the Russian opposition Progress Party) that Peskov bought his former wife Ekaterina Solotsinskaya an apartment for 1.77 million euros. “It is claimed that I bought an apartment in Paris, which… Read More »
On November 14, 2017, Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky unveiled in the city of Kaluga (about 200 km from Moscow) a new monument, a statue of Grand Duke Ivan III (1440–1505), the grandfather of Ivan the Terrible. The statue is in the same style as the infamous statue of St. Vladimir in Moscow. The Grand Duke’s figure… Read More »
On October 30, 2017, the Memorial Day for the Victims of Political Repressions, in Moscow, solemnly, with the participation of President Vladimir Putin and the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill, a huge bronze monument to the victims of political repressions of the Soviet period, called “Wall of Sorrow”, was unveiled. The inscription on the granite block,… Read More »
On October 20, 2017, the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK) recommended not to deprive Vladimir Medinsky, Russian Minister of Culture, of the degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences. The Expert Council of VAK on History had previously voted for the deprivation of the academic degree, stating that Medinsky lacked the basic skills and knowledge necessary for a… Read More »
On September 19, 2017, a gigantic monument was unveiled in the central part of Moscow, ordered by the Russian Military-Historical Society (RVIO) founded in 2012 by President Vladimir Putin’s decree. It was a 5-meter-high statue of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the infamous machine gun in 1949, on a 4-meter-high pedestal. The gigantic figure of Kalashnikov holds a… Read More »
Russian Court Denies Wallenberg Family Request In July 2017, Marie Dupuy, Raoul Wallenberg’s niece, filed a lawsuit in Moscow’s Meshchansky Region Court against the Federal Security Service (FSB), the KGB’s successor, seeking access to documents she believed could shed light on Wallenberg’s fate. On her behalf Ivan Pavlov, legal representative of the Dardel/Dupuy family (Team29, St. Petersburg, Russia),… Read More »
Third Raoul Wallenberg International Roundtable Stockholm, September 14–15, 2017 On September 14–15, 2017, the 3rd Raoul Wallenberg International Roundtable took place in Stockholm, at the Swedish Army Museum. It was organized by The Raoul Wallenberg Research Initiative RWI-70 and sponsored by a huge number of organizations and individuals. Among the distinguished sponsors were Nina Lagergren, the sister of… Read More »
On June 29, 2017, the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) presented data of a poll on Russian consumers’ opportunities. VTsIOM is the state-owned and government-run institution that reports to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The poll was made on May 25-29, 2017 in 130 towns, cities and settlements of 52 Russian regions and included 1,600… Read More »