Russia’s oil industry lacks the infrastructure to avoid spills and leaks; and the environmental consequences are horrific. 

In Siberia, agriculture faces crisis after crisis as small farmers find themselves in debt caused by bad weather, bureaucracy and corruption.

The ‘rationalisation’ of medical and social services in rural Russia has compelled people to acquire new skills in order to survive, but life for the weakest is very hard – and very expensive. 

President Putin’s special envoy to the Urals, recently praised the region’s farmers for their heroic efforts to save the harvest. But it won’t save them. 

In Novosibirsk ‘Orthodox activists’ have declared open war not only on rock fans but on the mayor and governor as well. на русском языке 

Andrei Balobanov, a radio telephonist in a Russian motorised rifle company, was serving in Ukraine; he was captured, supposedly asked for asylum, and then just disappeared. На русском языке