Putin’s fiercest critic has died in an Arctic Circle penal colony. An Index writer remembers his fond and foolish friend
Alexei Navalny dead
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John Sweeney
John Sweeney is a writer and journalist who has investigated Russian interference in the US elections and Scientology
How to celebrate Putin’s 71st birthday? At the Ukrainian festival telling him to ‘fuck off’
Next weekend, Kyiv’s hipsters will be fed a diet of stand-up comedy, music, fashion and food as they raise a finger to their aggressive neighbour
Death of a storyteller
John Sweeney remembers Ukrainian novelist turned war crimes investigator Victoria Amelina, who has died in a Russian rocket attack on a watering hole favoured by journalists
Roberto Saviano: Italian democracy on trial
The Gomorrah author heads to court tomorrow in a case that illuminates the precarious state of media freedom in Italy
The Buena Vista Social v The Kremlin
The empty chairs at the empty tables in a journalists’ hangout in Kyiv are a tribute to the ultimate price paid for free expression
“Russia says it is not killing civilians. That is a lie”
Reporting for Index from Kyiv, John Sweeney says knocking a TV station off air by firing missiles at the transmitting tower is as subtle as Putin gets