A cache of hacked e mails published by the Distributed Denial of Secrets Initiative has revealed how Russian intelligence proxies have shaped western coverage of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine- this piece anonymises the documents and focuses on the processes by which Russia manipulates coverage
Latvia’s ex Prime Minister Dombrovskis has a few questions to answer about his spouse’s failed real estate business…
Why is Germany helping Russia to build a gas pipeline which it does not need and damage sensitive habitats in the Baltic?
A former Latvian PM was hailed as a financial genius when he managed the aftermath of the collapse of the country’s largest bank. But was everything quite as it seemed?
The head of Latvia’s Financial Intelligence Unit may have detailed knowledge of the questionable transactions which accompanied the bank’s collapse. Will she share it with us?
Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, has invested in a bank that appears to have been propped up via a bogus privatisation deal at a cost of over €55m to the Latvian people…
Actions speak louder than words. Edward Lucas is publicly one of the most vociferous opponents of Putin. But actions speak louder than words and his behaviour in the contextof the collapse of the Parex, Ukio and ABLV Banks raises some interesting questions…
Leonid Bershidsky is one of the most prominent liberal voices writing on Russia and Ukraine in the western media. Yet there are grounds for treating his work with a measure of caution and historic business links to the entourage of corrupt ex president Viktor Yanukovych.
The first in a series on how journalism and think tanks are affected by the oligarchisation sponsored by Russia and its western collaborators.
In the 1930s Stalin and his henchmen exterminated millions of Ukrainians by mass executions and organised artificial famine. Ukrainians commemorate the victims annually on the fourth Saturday in November.
The destruction of a whole generation of Ukrainian authors during Stalin’s genocide of Ukraine in the 1930s remains ignored in the west: yet it shines a light on the character of a Russian imperialism that is presently threatening liberal democracy
How a Russian mafia kingpin’s career spans both the looting of Latvia’s Parex bank and the subversion of American politics.
Mystery surrounds the funds allegedly looted from Latvia’s Parex bank which collapsed in 2008… however key Parex figures are linked to fast loan providers which were created while the bank collapsed. Latvia’s oligarchic past gives us a glimpse into one possible future for Britain and the EU…
Parex bank may have collapsed but an oligarchic clan linked to its former owners and employees may control much of Latvia’s banking and political system…
Pavlo Tychyna one of Europe’s greatest poets, remains relatively unknown outside Ukraine, yet this author like all great writers can enhance our understanding of the human condition
Russian soft power has led to the west having a distorted view of Ukraine’s history and its literature…
One of the best poets in any language, a boozy bard who wrote like Dylan Thomas on acid, is little known outside Ukraine. Read about him and stroll through a nocturnal Carpathian forest haunted by pagan Gods
One enterprising English law firm sits at the centre of a web of connections between Russian oligarchs and the British elite. An analysis of its connections shows how deeply Britain has been penetrated by Russian wealth and the potential threat it poses….
The tale of a Latvian coffee firm and what it tells us or doesn’t tell us about how money that may or may not be looted by oligarchs may or may not be laundered. But none of this may apply to this daydream over a cappucinno…
The west criticises Ukraine for corruption and a violent right wing that enjoys limited popular support without looking at the context of the country’s war with Russia. By failing to do so it is placing its own security at risk.
Opinion: On 16 July Putin will meet Trump in Helsinki and try to realise a return on his investment in his tangerine tinted Fascist puppet. But time is running out for them both…
What my 15 minutes of fame in Kyiv in 2012 tells us about how special services control cultural life in an autocracy…
Vasyl Holoborodko is reluctant to talk about the Russian invasion engulfing his birthplace in the Donbas but his poetry is a powerful testimony to the effects of war and exile.
I have been compelled to withdraw an article regarding Citadele bank. But some questions remain…
What the charmed career of one Latvian banker tells us about the EBRD, Russia, and corruption…
Initial media reports in the UK have given a partial or inaccurate account of the man allegedly running one of Putin’s slush funds for subversion in Ukraine. Here is what we know to date about him and his links to Russia.
When Ukraine staged a murder to save a journalist it was vitriolically attacked while Russia, which commissioned his murder, was treated with kid gloves. Why?
Ukrainian author Vyacheslav Huk was in Kyiv when his Crimean birthplace was annexed by Russia. His poetry is a powerful expression both of Ukraine’s European aspiration and the pain of being an exile within his own country.
The 2018 Tribeca Festival gave the award for best narrative short movie to a Russia Fascist propaganda flick inspired by terrorists who dream of destroying the US
Pieter Omtzigt, the Dutch MP appointed by the Council of Europe to oversee a sensitive investigation into the murder of a crusading Maltese journalist, has a track record which raises questions over how he will fulfill his role
Latvia and the EU are trying to clean up the country’s banking sector after the Mafia linked Parex bank hit the rocks. But has Parex’s successor Citadele bank provided services to a Russian firm currently sanctioned by the US?
Russian intelligence curated terrorists receive services from several western internet firms, who may be driving a nail into the coffin of their own societies…
Crucial votes in the US and UK may well have been won by bot nets on social media. Research by Oleksandr (Sasha) Talavera and his colleagues indicates the disturbing implications for democracy.
Maxim Butchenko, an ex Donbas miner turned journalist, saw his family torn apart by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Donbas. He has written a novel which is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand how hybrid war technology poisons societies.
A number of high profile investigations by UK journalists have looked at how UK shell firms are used to launder dirty Russian and Ukrainian money… but the practice is far more widespread and banal than you might think…
John Christmas was the head of the Latvian Parex bank’s international group when he tried to draw the attention of the authorities to alleged corruption at the bank. He had to flee Latvia but his evidence might help tackle the links between European banks and the Russian mafia.
Kateryna Havrish was running an animal shelter in the Donbas when her life was turned upside down by war. She became a latter day Noah trying to save all the cats and dogs who were made homeless by the war… while coming to terms with her memories of crimes committed against civilians.
Ukrainian novelist Oleh Shynkarenko on how even people whose apartments have been blown to bits by Putin sing his praises- and a hologrammatic novel that captures our present reality
Eugene Dokukin and his colleagues have taken down hundreds of sites supporting Russian terrorism and have a lot to tell the west about how to fight Putin: but hardly anyone is listening.
How Russia produced a fake version of a plan to attack Ukraine to distract from the real, hacked, document
Émigré Ukrainian poet Vasyl Makhno on the heartache of watching Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity unfold on a laptop.
What does the appointment of Putin’s nephew to the Gazprom board mean for Europe?
UK registered firms whose ultimate ownership is masked are illegally exporting coal from Russian occupied Donbas
How Russia “weaponised” its stand at the Paris Book Fair in March 2018
The election was neither free nor fair but Putin is the choice of most Russians
Hackers claim to have broken into computers at the Russian MoD and downloaded plans to invade several countries in Europe and Asia