Yuri Zarakhovich
As the first and so far only Russian correspondent for TIME magazine since August 1988, Zarakhovich has been covering events like the breakup of the Soviet Union, the failed attempt of democracy in a new Russia, and the return of authoritarianism. He has also previously worked at the Associated Press, and in 1998 he was granted a Ph.D. in history for his research of the U.S. press coverage of Islamic Renaissance in the post-Soviet Space.
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Articles by Yuri Zarakhovich
Mikhail Gutseriyev and the Expediency of Russian Justice
On October 28, two authoritative Moscow-based business dailies Vedomosti and Kommersant quoted sources as saying that the arrest warrant for Mikhail Gutseriyev, a top Russian banker and oil tycoon of...
Kremlin Masterminds Mass Election Fraud
On October 11, the United Russia party, led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, won more than 7,000 local elections in 75 of its 83 regions. President Dmitry Medvedev hailed United...
Medvedev Calls for an Intellectual Breakthrough as Russian Education Declines
In his highly publicized article “Forward Russia!” published by Gazeta.ru on September 10, the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for a sweeping modernization of the Russian economy, politics, social realm,...
Gazprom Targets Larger Share of the U.S. Energy Market
On July 31 the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin formally launched the construction of the new strategic 1,800 kilometer Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok natural gas pipe-line, which is designed to ensure exports to...
Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok Pipeline Launched
On July 31 the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, formally launched the construction of the 1,800 kilometer Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok natural gas pipe-line (ITAR-TASS, July 31). This new strategic pipeline is designed...
Skype and ICQ Face Ban in Russia
When the Russian state initiates an executive order to inspect citizens' mail (EDM, July 21), it is the regime's idea of business as usual. However, when big business initiates harsh...
Russian Intelligence Granted New Powers over Citizens
On July 6, the Russian ministry of communications posted its Order 65, on its official website (www.minkomsvjaz.ru). Effective as of July 21, the order decrees that Russian postal services must...
Russian “Water,” Machismo and National Decay
One traditional resource which Russia has valued beyond hydrocarbons and land is vodka, the nation's traditional moral and physical painkiller. Nikolai Kostomarov, a nineteenth century Russian historian, wrote that at...
The Dacha: Russia’s Retreat, Soul Saver and Key Food Supplier
The Russian word "dacha" loosely means "country house." The dacha concept, however, is much broader than that. It personifies both the Russian way of life, and the Russian dream, if...
Medvedev Clings to Advancing the Ruble as Reserve Currency
The internecine squabbling between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has left investors puzzled and the U.S. dollar affected. On June 13, Kudrin said at a...
Medvedev Advocates Increasing Grain Exports to Enhance “Global Food Security”
In his speech to the World Grain Forum in St. Petersburg on June 6, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged that the country will double its grain production by bringing back...
Putin Resolves Protest in Pikalevo
A mass riot induced by the developing economic crisis, served to confirm the identity of the real boss and decision maker in Russia. While Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was speaking...
Putin Pays Homage to Ilyin
On May 24 Russian Prime minister Vladimir Putin visited the Sretensk Monastery's cemetery in Moscow, laying flowers on the graves of the White Russian generals Anton Denikin and Vladimir Kappel;...
Russia Braces for the Next Wave in the Economic Crisis
On May 25, the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presented his budget address during a Kremlin meeting with cabinet members and parliamentary chairmen. "In 2009, unfortunately, we expect a sharper fall...
Russian Neo-Nazi Movement Facing State Crackdown
The Russian authorities have long been dismissive of the growing neo-nazi movement within the country. However, on March 11 the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK, the high-level inter-departmental agency that coordinates...
Police Supermarket Killings in Moscow Reveals Deeper Problems
On April 27, Police Major Denis Yevsyukov, chief of the Tsaritsino district precinct in Southern Moscow, opened fire in a supermarket, killing two and injuring six -with four critically injured...
Moscow Tightens its Grip on the Regions as Wealth Declines
On February 26, Moscow ordered an inspection of the Far Eastern Jewish Autonomous Region (Birobidzhan) which borders China. Since 1991, the population of this region has declined by 15 percent,...
Russian Unemployment Figures Rapidly Rising
On Tuesday April 14, traffic on the Garden Ring Road in downtown Moscow was seriously hampered, as President Dmitry Medvedev made a high profile visit to the Institute of Contemporary...
Putin’s Banking Ally Sergei Pugachev Accused of Fraud
On February 11, 2009, Argumenti i Fakti, a tame but still high-profile Moscow based weekly, held a press conference on the Federation Council's (the upper house in the Russian Parliament)...
Putin’s “Power Vertical” Doesn’t Leave Other Ties to Keep Russia Together
"As a scholar, I establish the fact that the Russian Federation is developing signs of the initial stage of a breakup," Professor Alexei Malashenko, Scholar-in-Residence of the Carnegie Moscow Center,...
The Kremlin Reacts to Systemic Crisis with Plans to Beat Up the People and Arrest Dissidents
"A Happy New 1937 [the peak of Stalin's Great Terror] to you," Moscow wits quipped on January 1, 2009, while the Putin regime, frightened and incompetent in the face of...
Mismanagement of Russian Economy Could Lead to Social Unrest
The standard Kremlin spiel on Russia’s economic crisis is that it is all America’s fault. President Dmitri Medvedev said in his Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation...