Russia

Memorial is one of the best-known and most internationally renowned Russian non-government organisations and it has won the Sakharov Prize, the Right Livelihood Award and many other accolades. We object in the strongest possible terms to the politically motivated, manifestly unfounded proceedings against Memorial. The threat of the liquidation of Memorial deals a further, possibly final blow to independent civil society in Russia.

Global climate policy is the subject of multiple announcements put to the test over the course of these two weeks of COP26. Between the countries that have established carbon neutrality targets for 2050 (the United States and the European Union) and those looking to 2060 or further instead (Russia, China, India), the major challenge lies not in the deadlines, but in the translation of these dramatic promises into concrete actions.

Eva van de Rakt, Director of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union office in Brussels, was in conversation with MEP Viola von Cramon-Taubadel (Greens/EFA Group) about the Ryanair plane forced by the Lukashenko regime to land in Belarus and the lessons the EU must learn from this.

In Russia, atomic energy is completely state-owned and paid for out of taxpayers’ money. The state corporation “Rosatom” comprises civilian and military nuclear technology companies. It is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power plants (NPPs) and its activities extend more to projects in other countries than in Russia itself. Thanks to large capacities for uranium enrichment, which remained in Russian hands after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Rosatom currently controls 17% of world production of nuclear fuels.

Georgia has been unable to find peace since the parliamentary elections in October 2020. The resignation of Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, respected for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, in conjunction with the imprisonment of opposition leader Nika Melia on 23 February 2021, is merely another low point in this trend. The egotism of the neoliberal political elite favours informal structures leading to a creeping "Russification" of the country.

Our local Heads of Office are turning their attention to Belarus: Joanna Maria Stolarek discovers the spirit of Polish Solidarność on the streets of Belarus. Sergej Sumlenny reports on unexpectedly cautious, neutral and ambivalent responses from Ukraine. And in Moscow, President Aljaksandr Lukashenka remains the partner of choice, Johannes Voswinkel writes.

The new online course on masculinity has now been released in a version with English subtitles, making the cooperation project of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Moscow available internationally to anyone interested.

The old arms control framework between Russia and the West does not work any more. The erosion of central arms control treaties has led to new tensions between NATO and Moscow. A new approach aimed at reducing tensions in Europe must take into account that central geopolitical coordinates have changed, and that new weapon technologies are rendering the old arms control paradigms obsolete.  

The recent escalation of violence in Idlib is also a result of the increasing tensions between Turkey and Russia. The victims are those in Idlib, caught up in a hopeless situation amid a huge spectrum of differing interests.