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'I am Putin's propaganda'

Polina Bykhovskaya 14 December 2011
Is it possible to challenge censors without losing your livelihood? Polina Bykhovskaya interviews the men and women who wanted to change the world but ended up in the business of job preservation (their's and Putin's)

Corruption, complicity, careerism: the hydra of Russian justice

Andrei Loshak 18 March 2011

Once inside the wheels of the Russian legal system, the odds are stacked against you and a guilty verdict is inevitable. What keeps the wheels turning is conformism with villainy: the ability of normal people to adapt themselves to any, even the most monstrous of systems. Andrei Loshak presents a fascinating report on the Russian judiciary.

Mournful Unconcern: Russia reacts to Domodedovo

Elena Fanailova 25 January 2011

Desensitised to terror, Russians will not take long to get over the latest attack. Russian writer and openDemocracy contributor Elena Fanailova passed through Domodedovo Airport just thirty minutes before Monday’s bomb struck.

The Russian protest movement: why my optimism was misplaced

Oleg Kashin 10 December 2010
Journalist Oleg Kashin was recently brutally beaten up. To ram the message home, the fingers on his writing hand were broken, as well as his jaw and shins. He had been active in protesting the building of a highway through the Khimki forest nature reserve. Now he reflects on the authorities’ handling of a football demonstration with nationalist overtones and the arrests of the leaders of the punk protest group Voina, ruefully concluding that all this time he has been missing the point.

Parallel worlds: how connected Russians now live without the state

Andrei Loshak 22 November 2010

Russia’s summer of the wildfires brought about a change in society, says Andrei Loshak. Previously the only possible options for those disenchanted with the system were to take the streets or pack our bags and leave. Now we have another: self-help and self- organisation, much in the spirit of the Anarchist Prince, Peter Kropotkin

Khodorkovsky trial: a test for the president

Mikhail Zygar 29 October 2010
The sacking of Moscow mayor Luzhkov and the continuing debacle of Khodorkovsky's second trial could be seen as tests for the Russian President. Will Medvedev pass muster? Mikhail Zygar considers the options.

A Soldier's Tale

Tolya's Letters 29 March 2010

openDemocracy Russia now puts together in one document the 9 letters written by Tolya (probably not his real name), a private in the Russian army. Tolya preferred to serve in the army rather than study at university. These letters were written some time ago, but few publications give such a clear indication of the state of affairs in the Russian military.

Kafka’s Castle is collapsing

Andrei Loshak 19 March 2010
You can’t reason with the absurd, as IKEA found when it tried to build a model business in Russia. Institutional corruption is out of control. Kafka’s Castle is finally collapsing. This is good news, as Russians, ordinary Russians are losing their fear. Now they’re just angry, says Andrei Loshak.

A Soldier's Tale 9: changed, but not utterly dehumanised

Tolya's Letters 9 March 2010
In his final letter home from the army our conscript Tolya “finds” a mobile phone, is pursued by a mad officer and wonders what kind of man the army’s made of him

A Soldier’s Tale 8: violence is no joke

Tolya's Letters 24 February 2010
Our conscript Tolya continues his study of violence in his airborne division of the Russian army

A Soldier’s Tale 7: Hopes dashed, business as usual!

Tolya's Letters 16 February 2010
Our conscript Tolya had such high hopes of his new posting in the elite regiment of the Russian airborne division, but the bullying goes on – if anything it’s got worse

A Soldier's Tale 6: new beginnings? Perhaps!

Tolya's Letters 8 February 2010
Conscript Tolya has been moved again, this time to a show regiment. Life suddenly looks rather better, but is it for real?

Who is Russia's top intellectual?

Lyubov Borusyak 4 February 2010
Throughout Russian and Soviet history, the intellectual has played a central and hugely influential role in society. Today, that has changed. A recent internet vote on the country’s most influential intellectual saw instead postmodern ambiguity emerge victorious, writes Lyubov Borusyak

A Soldier’s Tale (5): a new life? Not b… likely!

Tolya's Letters 1 February 2010
Our conscript, Tolya, has left basic training. He hopes that things will be different, but his hopes are soon dashed when he meets his demobbers or dembels.

A Soldier’s Tale (4): the army paradox

Tolya's Letters 25 January 2010
Letters are a life-line for Tolya. The army’s a mysterious entity, unknowable by anyone outside it, the conscript reflects. Awful though it is, he wouldn’t have missed it. He’s learned a lot. And even (possibly) made a friend

The Russian media

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Russia-China

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The new year in Russia

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Russia's new economy

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Russian rights at the crossroads

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Beyond the gastarbeiter: post-Soviet migration

Madeleine Reeves (Manchester University, UK) presents the other side of post-Soviet migration.

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Regions

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Russia's year of elections

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Women, tradition and power in the North Caucasus

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Project_ID

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Privatizatsiya, twenty years on

Russian economy: trying to please people doesn’t help, Dmitry Travin

Privatisation, but no private property, Andrei Zaostrovtsev

Is corruption in Russia's DNA?, Pyotr Filippov

The Russian banking system: between the market and the state, Pavel Usanov

Russia’s crony capitalism: the swing of the pendulum, Vladimir Gelman

Russian reforms, twenty years on. Introduction to the series, Dmitry Travin

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