postsoviet

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.

In this interview for oDRussia, Prof.Alena Ledeneva talks to Oliver Carroll about the prospects for judicial reform in Russia. Medvedev’s efforts amount to far more than rhetoric, argues Ledeneva. Her ongoing research into the subject suggests that they strike at the heart of Russia’s informal system of government.

Olga Kudeshkina made headlines in 2004 as the first Russian judge to flag up political interference in the judicial system. Dismissed for her resistance, she took her case to the European Court of Human Rights and won. Kudeshkina outlines the continued political pressure felt by the judiciary and the barriers in the way of President Medvedev’s intentions to reform.

In the first of his regular monthly reports for odRussia, Alexei Levinson of Russia’s prestigious Levada Centre offers a round-up of Russian public opinion at the start of 2010. Even when the economic crisis lead people to judge their government, he notes, approval of Prime Minister Putin remained high. Nor do people seem particularly bothered by Russia’s imaginary elections

In 2004, some local journalists in Oryol founded an independent newspaper ‘for those who want the truth’. Although it sold well, members of staff were subject to threats, bribes, attacks and arson. Still, it lasted four years.

Russia’s drugs problem has reached crisis point in Orenburg Region. It borders on Central Asia and is used as a transit point. Government measures against trafficking and addiction are hampered by lack of money and official attitudes

Russian-Ukrainian ties may have deteriorated during Yushchenko’s presidency, but his successor Yanukovych is determined to redress that balance. It is crucial that Ukrainians continue to feel they are a sovereign nation, maintains Valery Kalnysh.

IKEA, which has publicly railed against corruption in Russia, has itself been caught paying bribes there. Could President Medvedev's anti-corruption campaign really turn Russia into a place where foreigners can do business, wonders Jesse Heath?

Much of Russian history is characterized by pendulum swings between orthodoxy and reform to overcome backwardness. Russia is again debating reform and the West has a vital stake.

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

There have been many attempts at building new structures to replace the Soviet Union, since it fell 10 years ago. These have left the political landscape littered with acronyms: CST, CSTO, CRRF, SCO, EEC, SES, GUAM and GUUAM. In the second part of his article Sergei Markedonov reviews their success, failures and attendant complications.

Russia’s foreign policy is outdated, according to the distinguished foreign affairs analyst Dmitry Trenin. In the first part of this interview with polit.ru’s Boris Dolgin he argues that rather than focus on preserving Russia’s status as a great power, its aim should be modernisation. Otherwise, great power or no, the country is doomed

Corruption has always been part of Russian life, and the Oryol region today just offers a rather extreme example, says Elena Godlevskaya. Some of the main perpetrators have been named, but the punishment being meted out to them is a joke.

The recent catastrophic fire at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm grabbed national headlines. Local authorities all over Russia are suddenly having to get their act together, says Elena Strelnikova

Listen to a podcast of the openDemocracy Russia evening on 2 July 2009 in London. The editor of openDemocracy's Russia Section, Susan Richards discusses her new book Lost and Found in Russia with the scholar Anatol Lieven.

The evening was also part celebration of the first anniversary of openDemocracy's Russia site and openDemocracy's editor-in-chief Tony Curzon Price introduces the event with a reference to that...