Russia Invades Ukraine
Recent headlines and news feeds have been dominated by stories about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an independent democratic nation of 44 million people. What caused Russia to invade its neighbor? What is Russian president Vladimir Putin’s goal? How will the rest of the world respond? Here, btw takes a closer look at this volatile […]
Tensions Rising Between Russia and Ukraine
Russia and Ukraine are two neighboring nations with a tumultuous history. Now, they are facing their highest level of tension in years. So, what’s happening, and how worried should the global community be? Here, btw takes a closer look. Recent Tensions Tensions between Ukraine and Russia began to escalate in 2013. Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovych […]
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Widespread Protests Rock Russia Have you heard of Alexei Navalny? He is an activist, lawyer, and blogger who leads the Russian opposition movement against President Vladimir Putin. Navalny has millions of followers and regularly calls out Putin and his United Russia party with accusations of corruption. He compares the current state of the Russian government […]
Trouble in Helsinki
On July 16, Donald Trump met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The two hours of closed-door talks between the two leaders was followed by a news conference, which turned out to be one of the most troubling moments of Trump’s presidency so far. Here, btw takes a look at […]
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Baseball Minor Changes Are you a minor league baseball fan? If so, get ready: there will be some changes to the game in time for the 2018 season, particularly where extra innings are concerned. League officials are looking to improve the pace of the game by speeding it up a bit. They think this will make […]
A Look at Vladimir Putin
Last week, Russian president Vladimir Putin–who is up for re-election later this month–gave a fiery annual address to his country. In it, he talked a lot about domestic policy: improving living standards, cutting the poverty rate in half, emphasizing technology and business growth, and growing the economy. But that’s not what earned his speech international […]
Russian Hacking and the Presidential Election
Rumors about Russian involvement in the presidential election have been circulating as long ago as last summer. Now, however, there is more evidence that Russian hackers, under orders from President Vladimir Putin, interfered in the election by breaking into the computers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and spreading propaganda and fake news stories. New […]
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Cease Fire in Aleppo? Over the past week, American news reports have been full of images of wounded children in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Last Thursday, a tentative cease-fire was reached in the area, which has continued to hold as of late Monday evening. Until this month, Aleppo was the last rebel stronghold in […]
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Russian Air Strikes in Syria As ISIS continues to threaten in Syria, Russia has acted on its own with air strikes. A coalition against ISIS—which includes the U.S., France, Germany, Great Britain, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia—has publically opposed the military actions. The coalition nations say that the Russian have killed civilians and air strikes […]
Where Was Putin?
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on March 5, and then wasn’t seen or heard from again for eleven days. This is highly unusual because the Russian leader typically maintains an almost-daily presence in the lives of the Russian people. News of his visits, meetings, and general daily activities are […]