On 10th
July a Moscow court extended the pre-trial detention of three members of
feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot, charged with hooliganism after they
performed a ‘blasphemous’ and anti-Putin song in the city’s main cathedral in February.
Vladimir
Pastukhov believes there is much the case tells us about the relations between
the Putin government and the Russia’s Orthodox Church.
Georgia’s capital is undergoing a massive rebuilding programme, with shabby historical buildings being replaced with facsimiles, complete with plastic ornamentation. But, as documentary filmmaker Salomé Jashi writes, an iconic square in old Tbilisi is being threatened with an even more radical remake.
Traditionally Russia’s agricultural land was subdivided into a patchwork of villages and fields, interspersed by forest and marsh. Now the villages are deserted and crumbling: the state closes them down, often on a whim, and young people leave to find work elsewhere. Matilda Moreton tells the tragic story based on fieldwork in the Russian North. 
Against the backdrop of Soviet disintegration, a grassroots campaign was launched from Britain to send hundreds of thousands of books to libraries across Russia and its
ex-colonies. As Bookaid celebrates its twentieth anniversary, two of its
organisers, Susan Richards and Ekaterina Genieva, consider a venture that still
has resonance today – the struggle to establish civil society across the
territory of the old Soviet empire. 
Ukrainian,
Russian…and 18 others? The debate over Ukraine’s official languages enters a
new chapter – but who are the real beneficiaries of a proposed new law? 
Reaction inside Russia and further afield to the imprisonment of 3 members of a punk rock girl band after their performance in one of Moscow’s cathedrals has been by turns outraged and baffled. The girls are still on remand, awaiting trial for hooliganism (maximum sentence 7 years). One can only hope they will triumph in the end, says Yelena Fedotova
Russians and vodka have always been a notorious and combustible combination, but the availability of alcohol has been in a constant change of flux over the last few decades as successive governments have tried to wean the public off the bottle. Mikhail Loginov reports from St Petersburg on changing habits. 
Russia’s wooden architecture, especially its churches, was hardly a priority during Soviet times and now many of the unique old buildings are very close to total ruin. A new book documents the tragedy in some of the most inaccessible parts of Russia’s north. The numbers are daunting, but a tiny ray of hope has appeared on the horizon, which could rescue one or two of the near-ruins, says Alexander Mozhayev 
Plucked from obscurity in the
Russian provinces, Masha Drokova was a rising star of the pro-Kremlin youth movement
Nashi. Yet she was also friends with Oleg Kashin, an independent and critical journalist who
was later nearly killed by assailants allegedly connected to
her movement. Drokova’s evolving moral dilemma is captured in a remarkable new
documentary, Putin’s Kiss, which opens in the UK on Sunday..jpg)
While teaching students about the architecture of his native Perm, Roman Yushkov has seen many of the Russian city’s finest buildings become history. He laments their passing, criticises the officials who let it happen, and wonders what the future holds for a place with no visible past.
Russia-China
The new year in Russia
Russia's new economy
Russian rights at the crossroads
Beyond the gastarbeiter: post-Soviet migration
Madeleine Reeves (Manchester University, UK) presents the other side of post-Soviet migration.
Regions
Russia's year of elections
Women, tradition and power in the North Caucasus
Project_ID
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
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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