The upheavals of 1989 that led to the collapse of eastern Europe’s communist governments would prove to be precursors of the USSR’s own collapse, but, at the time, this was far from clear. To find out firsthand how then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev interpreted the destruction of the Berlin Wall and Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, Current Time spoke with Andrei Grachev, Gorbachev’s press secretary from August – December 1991.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told Current Time TV that Russia was the biggest obstacle to the latest efforts aimed at defusing the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Linkevicius noted violations of the cease-fire linked to troop withdrawals agreed by Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists, and said Russia was an "active participant" in the conflict.
His case has become arguably one of the best known among the dozens of prisoners arrested on criminal charges during Moscow’s chaotic summer of election protests. Now freed from prison, Pavel Ustinov, a 23-year-old Russian actor, told Current Time that he intends to take to the streets to rally for the freedom of other protest prisoners.
U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton has called for the United States and Belarus to engage in a dialogue about their common interests, despite “significant issues” in their bilateral relations.
The daughter of Natalya Estemirova, the Russian rights activist who who was abducted and killed 10 years ago, said she blames President Vladimir Putin, the leader of Chechnya, “and the whole system that they have built” for her mother’s death.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin told Current Time on July 15 that grounds exist to expect that the 24 Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia during a November 2018 clash off the coast of Crimea will soon return to Ukraine.
Euroskepticism doesn't get far with 81-year-old former Latvian President Vike-Freiberga. As head of state, she sidestepped tensions with Russia and successfully advocated for Latvia's 2004 entrance into the European Union. "We simply clenched our teeth and rowed forward," she told Current Time.
Ukraine’s newly elected, 41-year-old president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has plans for a NATO referendum “once all Ukrainians are ready,” a series of “one-on-one” talks with Ukrainian oligarchs, and says he means to deliver on promises for 500 million euros in financial aid from the European Union. He pedaled through these topics and more with Current Time correspondent Grigory Zhygalov in Brussels.
Load more
