All people of good will can only welcome the release of Ilmi Umerov from a psychiatric hospital, after an international campaign including quite possibly the intervention of US President Barack Obama; but this use of Soviet-style...
After Russia illegally annexed Crimea in March 2014, the local officials were offered to pledge allegiance to the new “authorities” of the peninsula. Ilmi Umerov, head of the Bakhchysarai region and deputy head of the Mejlis,...
The legendary information bulletin, A Chronicle of Current Events, published by dissidents in the Soviet Union during 1968-1983, was reanimated one year ago. Now news about human rights violations and the fate of those persecuted for...
Chechnya governor Ramzan Kadyrov’s call for incarcerating members of the Russian opposition in psychiatric prisons much as the Soviets did has attracted widespread attention, but what makes the Chechen leader’s words even...
Pyotr Pavlensky is in pre-trial detention for setting the doors of the FSB, Russia’s secret police that became the successor to the KGB, on fire, facing charges for vandalism and up to three years of prison. However, he wants to...
In December of this year it will be 35 years since a group of human rights activists, psychiatrists, lawyers and some French Trotskyites met in Paris to develop a mechanism to coordinate the campaigns again the political abuse of...
Not all, but “the overwhelming majority of Germans sincerely believed” what Hitler said, just as not all but the overwhelming majority of Russians sincerely believe what Vladimir Putin says, according to Semyon Gluzman. But...
This text should have been written by Oleksandr Podrabinek instead of yours truly. The wonderful book, Dissidents, written by one of the best Russian publicists, who spent years in Soviet camps, speaks of how punishing psychiatry worked in...
The history with the Ukrainian air force officer Nadiya Savchenko has acquired a psychiatric aspect. Detained by Russian secret services on the territory of Ukraine, she was illegally transferred to Russia and by a decision of a...
By Robert van Voren Introduction Since the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, the former Soviet Union is again daily front-page news. The rapid sequence of events has led to an atmosphere that is very reminiscent of the heydays of the Cold...
First stereotype: Ukrainians are very poor Some Europeans viewed Ukraine as extremely poor. Many Ukrainian refugees were surprised to learn that. “They perceived us almost like we are cave people who do not know and have not seen...
