Moscow

Together, the Klyuev Group allegedly stole $107 million from public coffers—and therefore from the Russian people—using dummied-up registrations for companies that formerly belonged to a Renaissance subsidiary, Rengaz Holdings Limited. The Group then allegedly used these companies to file bogus refund claims in Kazan and Moscow. All the money was duly refunded thanks the accomplices in the Moscow tax offices, according to the investigative website Russian Untouchables, then wired to accounts at the Universal Savings Bank, an institution which Klyuev owned and operated. Then Klyuev, Stepanova and Stepanova’s husband Vladlen Stepanov all went on holiday together to Dubai, as plane records obtained and published by Russian Untouchables demonstrate. From there, Klyuev and the Stepanovs traveled to Switzerland, where the husband-and-wife team reportedly kept deposits at Credit Suisse in the names of their offshore shell companies. They all returned to Moscow on the same … [Read more...] about Moscow’s Long, Corrupt Money Trail

In this image made from video provided by Russian Emergency Situations Ministry press service, shows a view of a damaged hotel of nine rooms located in the basement of a residential building which was flooded with boiling water after a pipe ruptured in Perm, Russia, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. Russian emergency services say heating pipe damage caused deaths and injuries. (Ministry of Emergency Situations press service via AP) less … [Read more...] about Heating pipe bursts in Russian hotel, boiling water kills 5

Putin served two presidential terms in 2000-2008 and then shifted into the prime minister's position to observe the term limit but effectively remained in charge while his associate Dmitry Medvedev served as a placeholder president in 2008-2012. Medvedev obediently stepped down after to allow Putin reclaim the top job and move into premiership after amending the constitution to extend the president's term from four years to six. … [Read more...] about Putin sends his constitutional proposals to Parliament

The hotel of nine rooms was located in the basement of a residential building in the city near Russia’s Ural Mountains. All of the victims – which included a child – were staying at the hotel, authorities said. Three of the injured were hospitalized with burns. … [Read more...] about Heating Pipe Bursts, Flood of Boiling Water Kills Five in Russian Hotel

Thirty years ago this weekend, Americans paused and watched — somewhere between humbled and gloating — as Germans surged across the Berlin Wall and rediscovered each other in what seemed like the world’s largest family reunion. The relatively new Cable News Network brought us bulletins in real time, in which some of us strained to see the faces of college friends who’d headed to Germany after graduation. One thing everyone was sure of was that this European triumph was also a triumph for core American values, democracy and freedom, and for American efforts to promote them. While Europe looks back at the meaning of the Berlin Wall, perhaps Americans should also ask how we went from cheering its destruction to “Walls Work” — from celebrating the human drive for freedom to wanting to outdo East Germany’s sharpshooters and razor wire with moats and alligators. … [Read more...] about Revisiting the Promise of a World Without the Berlin Wall