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Shchekochikhin
Yuri Petrovich Shchekochikhin ( rus, Ю́рий Петро́вич Щекочи́хин, p=ˈjʉrʲɪj pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ɕːɪkɐˈtɕixʲɪn; 9 June 1950 – 3 July 2003) was a Soviet and later Russian investigative journalist, writer, and liberal lawmaker in the Russian parliament. Shchekochikhin wrote and campaigned against the influence of organized crime and corruption. His last non-fiction book, ''Slaves of the KGB'', was about people who worked as KGB informers. As a journalist for the newspaper ''Novaya Gazeta (NG)'', Shchekochikhin investigated apartment bombings allegedly directed by the Russian secret services and the Three Whales Corruption Scandal which involved high-ranking FSB officers and was associated with money laundering through the Bank of New York. In the 1995 Russian legislative election he became a member of the State Duma. He was re-elected in the 1999 legislative election. Shchekochikhin died suddenly on 3 July 2003 from a mysterious illness a fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three Whales Corruption Scandal
The Three Whales Corruption Scandal is a major corruption scandal in Russia involving several furniture companies and federal government bodies, which has unfolded since 2000. 2000 smuggling investigation Three Whales (Tri kita/Три кита) is a Moscow furniture shopping complex owned by Sergei Zuev. On August 13, 2000, Russian Customs inspectors suspended it and seized a furniture consignment supplied by the companies Bastion and Liga Mars, as they had allegedly smuggled 400 tons of furniture into Russia, while Zuev had evaded $5 million of customs duty by falsifying the price and weight of the imported goods. On October 20, 2000, Captain Pavel Zaitsev filed a criminal case against Liga Mars, initiated on September 7 by the Moscow Oblast Directorate of Internal Affairs. The customs inspectors found that the Three Whales shop was controlled by Yevgeny Zaostrovtsev, a former chief of now FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev and the father of FSB General Yury Zaostrovtsev, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Apartment Bombings
In September 1999, a series of explosions hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, killing more than 300, injuring more than 1,000, and spreading a wave of fear across the country. The bombings, together with the War of Dagestan, Invasion of Dagestan, triggered the Second Chechen War. The handling of the crisis by Vladimir Putin, who was Prime Minister of Russia, prime minister at the time, boosted his popularity greatly and helped him attain the presidency within a few months. The blasts hit Buynaksk on 4 September and Moscow on 9 and 13 September. Another bombing happened in Volgodonsk on 16 September. Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Chechen militants were blamed for the bombings, but denied responsibility, along with Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov. A suspicious device resembling those used in the bombings was found and defused in an apartment block in the Russian city of Ryazan on 22 September. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novaya Gazeta
''Novaya Gazeta'' (, ) is an independent Russian newspaper. It is known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs, the Chechen wars, corruption among the ruling elite, and increasing authoritarianism in Russia. It was formerly published in Moscow until shortly after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began, in regions within Russia, and in some foreign countries. The print edition is published on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; English-language articles on the website are published on a weekly basis in the form of the ''Russia, Explained'' newsletter. As of 2023, the newspaper had a daily print circulation of 108,000, and online visits of 613,000. Seven journalists, including Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, and Anastasia Baburova, have been murdered since 2000, in connection with their investigations. In October 2021, editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Maria Ressa, for their sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (30 August 1962 ( at WebCite) – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organized crime, organised crime. A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he advised British intelligence and coined the term "mafia state". In November 1998, Litvinenko and several other FSB officers publicly accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky (businessman), Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was arrested the following March on charges of exceeding the authority of his position. He was acquitted in November 1999 but re-arrested before the charges were again dismissed in 2000. He fled with his family to London and was granted political asylum, asylum in the United Kingdom, where he worked as a journalist, writer and consultant for the British intelligence services. During his time in L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ganja, Azerbaijan
Ganja (; ) is Azerbaijan's List of cities in Azerbaijan, third largest city, with a population of around 335,600.Azərbaycan Respublikası. — 2. Azərbaycan Respublikasının iqtisadi və inzibati rayonları. — 2.4. Azərbaycan Respublikasının iqtisadi və inzibati rayonlarının ərazisi, əhalisinin sayı və sıxlığı, səhifə 66. /Azərbaycanın əhalisi (statistik bülleten) Müəllifi: State Statistics Committee, Azərbaycan Respublikasının Dövlət Statistika Komitəsi. Buraxılışa məsul şəxs: Rza Allahverdiyev. Bakı — 2015, 134 səhifə. The city has been a historic and cultural center throughout most of its existence. It was the capital of the Ganja Khanate until 1804; after Qajar Iran ceded it to the Russian Empire following the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, it became part of the administrative divisions of the Georgia Governorate, Georgia-Imeretia Governorate, Tiflis Governorate, and Elizavetpol Governorate. Following the dissolution of the Russian Emp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radioactive Material
A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, giving it excess nuclear energy, and making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transferred to one of its electrons to release it as a Internal conversion, conversion electron; or used to create and emit a new particle (alpha particle or beta particle) from the nucleus. During those processes, the radionuclide is said to undergo radioactive decay. These emissions are considered ionizing radiation because they are energetic enough to liberate an electron from another atom. The radioactive decay can produce a stable nuclide or will sometimes produce a new unstable radionuclide which may undergo further decay. Radioactive decay is a random process at the level of single atoms: it is impossible to predict when one particular atom will decay. However, for a collection of at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1999 Russian Legislative Election
Legislative elections were held in Russia on 19 December 1999 to elect the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p. 1642 Like in the previous elections in 1995, the electoral system resulted in many parties competing for the proportional seats and a significant number of independent deputies elected. Electoral system According to the 1993 electoral law, 225 members of the house were allocated proportionally, using statewide party lists, while other 225 members were elected in single-member constituencies, using first past the post system. To secure a place on the ballot, parties had to have registered with the Russian Ministry of Justice one year before the election (instead of six months in previous elections). As an alternative to gathering 200,000 signatures, they had the option of paying a deposit of just over two million roubles, returnable if the party won ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States asserts sovereignty over five Territories of the United States, major island territories and United States Minor Outlying Islands, various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest land area and List of countries and dependencies by population, third-largest population, exceeding 340 million. Its three Metropolitan statistical areas by population, largest metropolitan areas are New York metropolitan area, New York, Greater Los Angeles, Los Angel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Tsepov
Roman Igorevich Tsepov (Russian: Роман Игоревич Цепов; 22 July 1962 – 24 September 2004) was a Russian businessman and confidant to Vladimir Putin during Putin's work at the Saint Petersburg City Administration. Tsepov was suspected of corruption and criminal activity. Biography Born Belinson, Tsepov changed his surname upon marriage to Tsepov. Upon graduation from the Supreme Political school of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Tsepov served in the Internal Troops as a political commissar. In 1990, he retired from the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the rank of captain. "Baltic Escort" In 1992, Tsepov founded the security firm "Baltic Escort" which became the largest security firm in St. Petersburg (in the 1990s, the word escort meant in Russian security, not prostitution). The idea to create this agency belonged to the future Putin bodyguard Viktor Zolotov who later oversaw this agency as a member of the active reserve. Yuri Felshtinsk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikolai Khokhlov
Nikolai Yevgenievich Khokhlov (Cyrillic: Николай Евгеньевич Хохлов; 7 June 1922 – 17 September 2007) was a KGB officer who defected to the United States in 1954. He testified about KGB activities. The KGB unsuccessfully tried to kill him with poison in 1957. Family background Nikolai Khoklov was born in 1922, in Nizhny Novgorod. Khokhlov's parents divorced when he was very young. He was not well-acquainted with his father, who later served as a commissar in the Red Army. During the Battle for Moscow, the elder Khokhlov was transferred to a penal battalion because he had made unfavourable remarks about Joseph Stalin. Khokhlov's father died in the battalion. His stepfather, a lawyer, volunteered to defend Moscow in 1941 and died in action almost immediately. As Khokhlov later put it, "The army needed cannon fodder". NKVD career In October 1941, Khokhlov, then 19 years old, was a member of an NKVD quartet who were trained to commit a spectacular attack ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1995 Russian Legislative Election
Legislative elections was held in Russia on 17 December 1995 to elect all 450 seats in the 2nd State Duma of the Russian Federation. The anti-government Communist Party won a total of 147 seats, the most deputies of any single bloc in the chamber. The pro-government Our Home – Russia came second with 55 seats, with the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia falling to third place with 51. As well as the fourth placed Yabloko, only these four parties crossed the 5% threshold to win party-list seats. Electoral system The election law adopted for the 1995 election was similar to that adopted for the 1993 election, with some minor modifications. First, to secure a place on the proportional representation ballot, parties had to have registered with the Ministry of Justice no later than six months before the election, and the number of signatures they had to gather rose from 100,000 to 200,000. Second, invalid votes were now included in the calculation of the 5.0 percent t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assassination
Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are ordered by both individuals and organizations, and are carried out by their accomplices. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times. A person who carries out an assassination is called an assassin. Etymology ''Assassin'' comes from the Italian and French Assissini, believed to derive from the word '' hashshashin'' (), and shares its etymological roots with '' hashish'' ( or ; from ').''The Assassins: a radical sect in Islam'' – Bernard Lewis, pp. 11–12 It referred to a group of Nizari Ismailis known as the Order of Assassins who worked against various political targets. Founded by Hassan-i Sabbah, the Assassins were active in the Near East from the 11th to the 13th centuries. The group killed members of the Ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
