openDemocracy Russia selects its highlights from 2011:

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The last prisoner

Ekaterina Loushnikova

Pavel Galitsky spent 15 years in the brutal labour camps of Kolyma, Siberia. Against the odds, the 100-year old dissident is still alive and Skype'ing, having outlived both contemporaries and tormentors.

The dog days of the USSR

Rodric Braithwaite

An ambassador's diary covering five days before, during and after the unsuccessful August 1991 coup, which ushered in the end of the USSR. Fascinating reading published in three parts.

On Putin, Berlusconi and chimpanzees

Augusto Come

Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi constructed their careers on an idea of virility, just at a time when the concept seemed to many to be outdated. An even closer investigation of their strategies reveals a striking association with images from the fascist past.

The men who knew too little

Nick Fielding

The FBI’s investigation into the US sleeper spy ring was an impressive intelligence operation, producing detailed, irrefutable evidence for the public record. The MI5 investigation into British parliamentary aide Katia Zatuliveter was quite different — superficial, speculative and secretive.

Death and cover-up in the Russian army

Various

Hazing of new recruits is infamously widespread in the Russian army and families of men who have died find their struggle for closure hindered by military cover-ups and ineptitude. The campaigning organisation Mother's Right Foundation has been keeping records of these incidents for many years. Here we detail the stories behind six tragic cases.

In the backyard of Russia’s oil paradise

Roman Yushkov

Hazing of new recruits is infamously widespread in the Russian army and families of men who have died find their struggle for closure hindered by military cover-ups and ineptitude. The campaigning organisation Mother's Right Foundation has been keeping records of these incidents for many years. Here we detail the stories behind six tragic cases.

+ Svetlana Reiter and Igor Kalyapin: behind the scenes at the death squads of Chechnya

+ Elena Strelnikova: mangoes can't buy you love

+ Yelena Fedotova: in praise of the little red men

+ Roman Yuskhkov: at war with the little red men