russia & eurasia: all articles

President Medvedev’s announcement that he is considering reducing the number of time zones in Russia has evoked a sense of déjà vu in Samara. Previous attempts have all failed and Medvedev would do well to think hard before proceeding, warns Vladimir Zvonovsky

Russia’s government, faced with an explosive rise in drug-taking, is not quite alone in resisting the approach of harm reduction promoted by the United Nations and the World Health Organisation, argues Elizabeth Rigbey, responding to openDemocracy’s article Russia’s drugs problem: blame the West

Anatoly Yar-Kravchenko: Maxim Gorki reads his fairy tale "A girl and death" to Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov on 11.11.1931 (painted in 1949)

Socialist realism, the old Soviet literary canon, has come to dominate the literary scene once more, laments the distinguished literary critic, Olga Martynova

 

 

Moscow, famously, has a traffic problem. But apart from moving the capital, there isn't really an answer, points out Mumin Shakirov

While wooing the West with talk of democracy, President Saakashvili has ruthlessly pursued his goal of controlling the media, especially television, says Robin Llewellyn

The rhetoric of the new Moldovan government is not music to the Kremlin's ears. However the powers that be in Chishinau have no choice. Immediately after the present summit of the Community of Independent States, the government has to move ahead with the hard work of serious reform of the economy, judiciary, media and bureaucracy.

A Russian poet’s eye on returning to Londongrad, where imperial decline is   woven into everyday life

Alexander Podrabinek, a former Soviet dissident, provoked a furore when he criticised pro-USSR revisionism on his blog

In 2010, Kazakhstan takes over the chair of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Increasingly strident attempts to muzzle independent voices in the Kazakh media suggests how the government is preparing itself, says Irada Huseinova

Russia has good reasons to respond positively to Obama's move away from missile defence. But realpolitik suggests they will not prevail

Europe's last dictator recently visited an EU country for the first time in a decade. Europe requires more democracy and economic liberalisation, but only Russia can offer his regime any hope of survival

 

Russian Orthodox Solovetsky Monastery complex, founded in the second quarter of the 15th century 

 

Russia's Orthodox Church has finally won its battle to make religious education compulsory in schools, says Russian Orthodox Church official Viktor Malukhin. But the secularists have won concessions too

Three former Western ambassadors to countries in the post-Soviet space applaud President Medvedev’s call for sweeping reform and suggest key paths to modernisation

After dropping the missile defence system in Eastern Europe, remaining American weapons in Europe should come next

The US's cull of its missile-defence plans in central Europe teaches a bitter lesson  

"History is politics in all countries." Nowhere more than between Moscow and Warsaw

Moldova's long-ruling communists, having recently been dethroned by the four-party Alliance for European Integration (AEI), are struggling to win back lost ground. The frantic activities of communist ex-President Voronin suggest he is not finding democracy easy

An exchange between renowned novelist and jailed ex-oligarch opens a buried history

A Kremlin media surprise suggests an intriguing parallel - with a twist

A social rehabilitation centre in Moscow for young disabled people has been threatened with eviction because the local authority needs the premises