Joseph Andreyev is an intern for Current Time English.
This June, police detained Yelena Bogolyubova for seven hours after she picked up a package of medicine for her terminally ill 10-year-old son. Russia had banned the medication, the anti-epileptic drug Frisium, as a narcotic. Amidst an uproar, the government promised changes, but the problem still remains: Russian epileptics cannot always get the medicine they need.
If fully developed, China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been projected to cost more than $1 trillion. But in neighboring Kazakhstan, Chinese investment doesn’t impress everyone. This autumn has been marked by protests across the country against Chinese loans and investment, including 55 planned Chinese enterprises. With trade and financial ties growing yearly between the economic superpower and the resource-rich Central Asian nation, these demonstrations could well continue.
Following an eventful summer, full of election protests and arrests, thousands of Russians took to the streets in Moscow again on September 29; this time, to call for the release of 13 men arrested as part of the so-called Moscow Case, an investigation into alleged “mass disorder” during an unauthorized July 27 rally for equitable candidate registration. With Russia's local elections now over, how much staying power do demonstrations for political transparency still have?
After nearly two months of protests over rejected candidate registrations in Moscow, Russian officials had a stake in making sure voters turned out for the country’s September 8 local and regional elections. Some opted for entertainment, others for a military escort. This is how a strange day of contrasts unfolded.
