Remember the Date: On 23 November 2006 Aleksandr Litvinenko died of polonium poisoning

Aleksandr Litvinenko in 2002. Source: Wikipedia On 23 November 2006 the former Russian intelligence officer Aleksandr Litvinenko died of polonium poisoning in London. As The Moscow Times reports, on 1…

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Remember the Date: Natalia Estemirova was murdered on 15 July 2009

On 15 July 2009 human rights defender Natalia Estemirova, a staff member of the Memorial Human Rights Centre’s office in Grozny, Chechnya, was abducted and killed. That morning, Natalia Estemirova was carried…

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Remember the Date: 18 March 2014 – the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

Map: Wikipedia On 18 March 2014 the Russian Federation formally annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. Ukraine considers the annexation a violation of international law and the event was condemned by…

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Remember the Date: On 8 March 1944 the Balkar people were deported to Central Asia

Photo by Marie Čcheidzeová via Wikipedia On 8 March 1944, during World War II, the Soviet authorities ordered the deportation of the Balkar people of the North Caucasus to Central…

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Remember the Date: 5 March 1953 – the death of Stalin

(From left to right) Stalin, Aleksei Rykov, Lev Kamenev, and Grigory Zinoviev in 1925. Source: Wikipedia Joseph Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dzе Jughashvili on 18 December [Old Style 6 December] 1878) died on 5 March 1953 at…

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Remember the Date: 5 March 1940 – Soviet authorities order the mass killing of Polish officers that became known as the Katyn Massacre

Photo of the order for the Katyn massacre: Wikipedia "The Katyn massacre, a series of mass executions of Polish nationals carried out by the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) in April and May 1940, was prompted by…

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Remember the Date: 27 February 2015 – the assassination of liberal politician and Putin critic Boris Nemtsov

Photo: Wikipedia On 27 February 2015 Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the Moskvoretsky Bridge near the Kremlin in Moscow.  Sources: RFE/RL, 27 February 2021: Several thousand people commemorated the sixth…

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Remember the Date: Deportation of Chechen and Ingush peoples on 23 February 1944

Photo of the Chechens and Ingush being loaded onto trains for the deportation (Wikipedia) On 23 February 1944 the Soviet authorities deported the Chechens and Ingush to Central Asia. The expulsion…

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