In Russia, the economic fractures intensify the political pressures on Vladimir Putin - these are explored in oDRussia by Vladimir Pastukhov, by Fyodor Lukyanov who defends a BBC series on the Putin years from its critics, as well as by Andrei Konchalovsky, who invokes history to advise Russia’s protesters to be cautious.

The protests in England against the government’s controversial health-service changes have reached a political pitch. But Our Kingdom’s stethoscope too is on England’s deep governance, with Gavin Barker emphasising the net’s potential to reinvigorate local democracy, the 70-something Trevor Smith looking at the consequences of the role of prime minister being a “mid-career” job, and James Butler thinking the new network politics through the prism of Paul Mason’s arguments.

The relaunched openSecurity features Ahmed E Souaiaia on the chances of region-fuelled civil war in Syria, while Vicken Cheterian assesses the balance of forces in a crucial period for Tunisia andVolker Perthes presents an overview of year two of the Arab revolution. Giuliano Battiston writes on the Afghan war’s legacy, which is also explored in Paul Rogers’s column; and Vidhya Ramalingam on the rise of Europe’s radical right is also reflected in contrasting views of Hungary from György Schöpflin and Anton Pelinka.

In 50:50, Nazek Ramadan challenges anti-immigrant prejudice via a new newspaper written by migrants: Migrant Voice. From Africa’s east and west, stories of displacement: Kathambi Kinoti in 50:50 on the African Union’s silence on the continent’s “land grabs” and their damage to women’s livelihoods, and Morten Bøås on the roots and reinvention of the Nigerian Islamist movement Boko Haram. In Colombia too, local insecurities are at the heart of continued turbulence, as Adam Isacson shows.

Our authors examine elections past (Taiwan) and future (France), the case against campaigning Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, the linguistic trap of China’s elite, and a new Hollywood film on Bosnia’s horrors. They find lessons too in a report on the killing of a Pakistani journalist, media coverage of Japan’s tsunami, and the tortured history of Israel and the political left. And Rebecca Willis asks a 21st-century question: what is energy for?

You won’t want to miss:

• How Democracy Can Save Europe
• Friends disappear as vengeance still stalks across Libya
• The Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan
• On why journalists should have higher expectations of themselves

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