Zygmunt Dzieciolowski is a Polish journalist and writer who has covered Russia for leading German, Swiss and Polish newspapers since 1989. He is the author of the book Planet Russia, which was published in Poland in 2005.He is joint editor of openDemocracy/Russia

Recent articles

After the recent Russian local elections were won by the Kremlin-backed ruling party, United Russia, opposition parties cried foul. A review of blogs and online comments from the Russian southern city of Astrakhan shows quite how bad things got.

Zugdidi fountain, with streams of water spouting up into the air from paving stones painted in the colours of the Georgian flag.

Last year openDemocracy Russia editor Zygmunt Dzieciolowski travelled in Georgia and Abkhazia. In Zugdidi he met Georgian refugees from Abkhazia with one question uppermost in their minds - would they ever be able to go back?

On a visit to the separatist republic of Abkhazia a week before the Russia-Georgia war in August 2008, openDemocracy/Russia editor Zygmunt Dzieciolowski was aware of growing tension. If war did break out, the locals knew that they would be the ones who paid the price.

Georgian soldiers during NATO exercises in Tbilisi, July 2008

In August 2008 our editor Zygmunt Dzieciolowski was in Georgia.  He interviewed Mikheil Saakashvili, as it happens just twenty hours before the war with Russia broke out.  Zygmunt was assured by the President that there were no plans for military action, but later that night he felt very sure that the war could begin at any moment.

openDemocracy's Russia editor reflects that Abkhazia has realised its dream of independence, but at the price of becoming Russia's pawn