Media

Vladimir Putin’s one great achievement is the restoration of bureaucratic order after its near destruction by Gorbachev and privatisation by Yeltsin. Yet the end game is fast approaching, and the longer Putin clings on, the more likely he will be instead remembered for letting greedy friends and bureaucrats run amok, writes Vladimir Pastukhov

Politician-blogger Alexei Navalny and writer Grigory Chkhartishvili (a.k.a Boris Akunin) conclude their dialogue with an exploration of what their country might look like after democratic change. What should be the priorities for a new and free Russia?

In this educational piece the author describes the neoteny exhibited by the political species

Russia's blogosphere has until recently been largely written off as a politically blunt parallel space. The Facebook mobilisation of 50,000 protestors has challenged such assumptions, writes Julien Nocetti.

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)

Last Wednesday oDR and the Russia Foundation held a roundtable event reflecting on the country's disputed parliamentary elections. The audience was addressed by eminent Russian journalist Mikhail Fishman and experts Prof. Vladimir Gelman and Dr. Andrew Wilson. Here we present full video highlights.

Russia’s 9 time zones are often exploited by TV management to pull controversial programmes, but the internet has changed the rules of the game. A recent film about kidnap victims in Chechnya was shown in the Far East, but not in European Russia. The ensuing outcry and internet activity show that people have had enough of censorship, says Tanya Lokshina

The Russian blogosphere has burgeoned into a open-door sanctuary for all strands of political opinion. Predictably, it has also attracted the attention of the country's security services. Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov present the first in a series of investigations outlining how the Russian state is now monitoring its online public.

A new series on openDemocracy Russia

Alla Pugacheva has ruled Russian pop for more than 40 years, surviving criticism and change while endearing herself to ordinary Russians. Her recent foray into politics, supporting the billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and ‘Just Cause’ was less successful, but she will rise above the problems, just as she always has, writes Mikhail Loginov

In Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine, ‘proper’ journalism means asking few questions and communicating few answers. Those who choose not to follow these Soviet rules of thumb are by consequence ‘improper’ journalists, who risk redress for the errors of their ways. In Aleksey Matsuka’s case, this has meant continual harassment and, earlier this month, the apparent attempt to set fire to him and his flat.

Last Sunday, unknown arsonists attempted to torch the apartment of oD author and investigative journalist Aleksey Matsuka in Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine. Despite the seriousness of the crime, the reaction from the police and investigating authorities has been woefully inadequate.

The recent arrest and detention of a group of photojournalists on apparently trumped-up charges continues to be a subject of heated discussion and protest in Georgia. The evidence and the so-called confessions contain a mass of contradictions and are a cause for serious concern about the real motivation for the arrests, explains Nino Tsagareishvili

Self-censorship was an important feature of Soviet life, but old habits, it seems, die hard. Mikhail Loginov reports on the return of “unwritten rules” to the Russian regional press

The degree of press freedom in Russia has fluctuated violently over the 20 years since the fall of communism. The situation in the Orenburg region, as everywhere, is a balancing act between principles and funding. And it’s always more difficult to rebuild what has been lost, laments Elena Strelnikova.

After months of slow-burn, the British phone "hacking" scandal (where the News of the World was shown to have gained illegal access to celebrity voicemails) has taken a dramatic turn. Rupert Murdoch's tabloid has finally admitted its guilt, and with that revealed a web of cover up and cronyism involving the police and Prime Ministers. Could it be, asks Anthony Barnett, that British democracy is beginning to follow Putin's sultanistic model of friends and favour?

Georgii Gongadze, inconvenient Ukrainian journalist, died in horrible circumstance nearly 11 years ago. His murderers may be behind bars, but who gave the order for his killing? Ordinary Ukrainians know – it was (then) President Leonid Kuchma. Despite a new case being opened against him, Valery Kalnysh explains why he will never be brought to justice.

In “The Net Delusion”, Evgeny Morozov vents frustration at what he calls “cyber utopianism” in Western foreign policy. Far from being a tool to free the weak, Morozov argues, oppressive regimes are now the expert manipulators of Web 2.0. He’s certainly got a point, says John Lloyd, but he is also wrong to assume no one in the State Department shares his concerns.

After a decade in the wilderness, Russian civil society is finding a powerful voice online. Alexey Sidorenko and Oliver Carroll profile seven citizen bloggers who are leading this charge. A co-publication with Global Voices