PRAGUE, August 18, 2006 (RFE/RL) –Fifteen years after the failed coup that triggered the collapse of the Soviet Union and transformed his own life, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev talks to RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service about the events of August 1991 and their legacy. RFE/RL: In his annual address to the Federal Assembly in 2005, [...]

Belarus has marked the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl catastrophe. 10,000 thousands of Belarusians took to the streets of Minsk for a traditional Charnobylski Shlyakh (The Path of Chernobyl). This year the rally was held under the motto “Freedom. Truth. Justice”. The Belarusians protested not only against the official policy of hushing up the aftermaths of [...]

16:30, 11/03/2006 Today in Belarus opponents of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime abduct people. Unknown representatives of law-enforcing agencies in mufti seize people in the streets, without producing any documents, and take them to police departments, and then in courts, where obedient judges pass sentences on wrongful charges. For instance, yesterday in Minsk Zubr activists Alyaksei Lyaukovich, [...]

When was the last time you read a complete non-sense statement from authorities? And not just complete but out of this world? The one that crosses all possible logic lines? Here is the one and it should drive sane people nuts. I do not know what kind of pot someone should smoke to come up [...]

Did you read “1984″ by G.Orwell? If an answer is “Yes” than you should also know that Orwell’s world is closer than you might think. According to The New York Times, the National Security Agency has eavesdropped, without warrants, on as many 500 people inside the United States at any given time since 2002. Without [...]

The Deir Yassin massacre (Deir Yassin is also transliterated from Arabic as Dayr Yasin and frequently (mis)transliterated from Hebrew writings as Dir Yassin) refers to the killing of scores of Arab civilians at the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem in the British Mandate of Palestine by Jewish irregular forces between April 9 and 11, [...]