Tag: Soviet Union

Russia’s cosmos town, an isolated relic of Soviet glory

by Nikolay KORZHOV Agence France-Presse BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AFP) – Malik Mutaliyev walks by an abandoned amusement park in wintry Baikonur, a secretive town in Kazakhstan’s inhospitable steppe that appeared alongside the eponymous Baikonur Cosmodrome where the Soviet Union’s space programme rose to glory. “Our town has lived through a lot: Perestroika, the fall of the Soviet Union, electricity shortages. We’ve been through it all,” says the 67-year-old former chief architect of Baikonur. The settlement located […]

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Lenin statue unveiled in western Germany after legal battle

by Tom BARFIELD Agence France-Presse GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany (AFP) — A divisive new monument to Soviet leader Lenin was unveiled in Germany on Saturday, in the middle of a global row over the controversial background of historical figures immortalised as statues. More than 30 years after the post-World War II communist experiment on German soil ended, the tiny Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD) installed Lenin’s likeness in the western city of Gelsenkirchen. A few hundred gathered […]

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Azerbaijan calls snap presidential poll

by Elman Mamedov Agence France-Presse BAKU, Azerbaijan (AFP) – Azerbaijan’s strongman Ilham Aliyev on Monday called a snap presidential vote for April, six months ahead of schedule, as opposition politicians slammed the surprise move. “Set the date of the election of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on April 11,” Aliyev ordered in a decree posted on his website without providing an immediate explanation for the move. The oil-rich country was initially set to hold the […]

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New party gives voice to Russian speakers in Cyprus

LIMASSOL, Cyprus (AFP) – Muscovite pensioner Svetlana Bogomilova emerges from a Russian grocery store into the Mediterranean sunshine near the Limassol beachfront in Cyprus. “It is very convenient here,” the retired teacher told AFP as a family with a pushchair strolled by chatting in Russian. “There is everything you could need.” Across the European Union’s most easterly member it is easy to spot the influence of the island’s sizable Russian-speaking community. In the seaside city of Limassol […]

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Cars, castles and communism: things to know about the Czech Republic

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP) – The Czech Republic emerged from four decades behind the Iron Curtain to become a member of the European Union and one of Europe’s tourist hotspots. Here are five things to know about the central European country of 10.6 million people that kicks off a second-round presidential election run-off on Friday. Prague, an architectural gem Its capital is a popular tourist magnet, boasting a picturesque historic center that entered the UNESCO heritage […]

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Five things to know about Vladimir Lenin’s mummified body

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Almost 94 years after his death and a quarter century after the fall of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin’s mummified body continues to be displayed in a mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow. Though the question of what to do about Lenin’s body comes up regularly in Russia, authorities have so far been reluctant to remove the corpse. Here is what you need to know about the body of the first […]

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Five things to know about Czech Republic

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP) – The Czech Republic, holding a two-day general election which ends Saturday, has been an EU member since May 1, 2004, but has chosen to remain outside the eurozone for the time being. Here are five key points about the country and its history. Independence in 1993 In 1918, Western Slavs shook off Austro-Hungarian rule, establishing Czechoslovakia, a new country comprising Czechs and Slovaks. But by 1938, Nazi Germany annexed its borderland regions […]

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Zbigniew Brzezinski, anti-Soviet White House adviser, dies at 89

WASHiNGTON, United States (AFP) — Zbigniew Brzezinski, the hawkish Polish-born Cold War strategist and former top aide to United States president Jimmy Carter who influenced key policy decisions on Afghanistan, China and the Middle East, has died, his family said. He was 89. His death in a Virginia hospital was announced late Friday by his daughter, Mika Brzezinski, an MSNBC journalist. She said he died “peacefully” but did not give a cause. Former president Barack […]

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