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Published in: oDRThe rise of Andrei Zvyagintsev
The recent successes of Russian film director Andrei Zvyagintsev is a reminder of how artists are pigeon-holed into...
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Published in: oDRIs liberalism the future for Russia?
For years, ‘liberal’ has been a dirty word in Russia, a shorthand for everything undesirable. Yet state propaganda...
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Published in: oDRHow Russian TV propaganda is made
Federal television in Russia has long been suspected of propaganda. Four Russian TV producers share their stories of...
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Published in: oDR'Is your mum a foreign agent?'
Russian NGOs, large and small, are facing closure after the blacklisting of their foreign funders. Colta.ru speaks...
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Published in: oDR'I took no prisoners'
In his own words, a Russian volunteer who signed up to fight in the Novorossiya militia in Eastern Ukraine. на русском языке
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Published in: oDRFrighten and be frightened
The uncompromising sentences passed down today to Aleksey Navalny and co-defendant Petr Ofitserov demonstrate that...
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Published in: oDRBrokeback in Belarus
Valery Sidorenko and Sergei Ostapchuk, both tractor drivers, live together happily in a remote village in the...
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Published in: oDR'I am Putin's propaganda'
Is it possible to challenge censors without losing your livelihood? Polina Bykhovskaya interviews the men and women...
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Published in: oDRCorruption, complicity, careerism: the hydra of Russian justice
Once inside the wheels of the Russian legal system, the odds are stacked against you and a guilty verdict is...
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Published in: oDRMournful Unconcern: Russia reacts to Domodedovo
Desensitised to terror, Russians will not take long to get over the latest attack. Russian writer and openDemocracy...
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Published in: oDRThe Russian protest movement: why my optimism was misplaced
Journalist Oleg Kashin was recently brutally beaten up. To ram the message home, the fingers on his writing hand...
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Published in: HomeParallel worlds: how connected Russians now live without the state
Russia’s summer of the wildfires brought about a change in society, says Andrei Loshak. Previously the only possible...
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Published in: oDRKhodorkovsky trial: a test for the president
The sacking of Moscow mayor Luzhkov and the continuing debacle of Khodorkovsky's second trial could be seen as tests...
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Published in: oDRA Soldier's Tale
openDemocracy Russia now puts together in one document the 9 letters written by Tolya (probably not his real name),...
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Published in: oDRKafka’s Castle is collapsing
You can’t reason with the absurd, as IKEA found when it tried to build a model business in Russia. Institutional...
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Published in: oDRA Soldier's Tale 9: changed, but not utterly dehumanised
In his final letter home from the army our conscript Tolya “finds” a mobile phone, is pursued by a mad officer and...
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Published in: oDRA Soldier’s Tale 8: violence is no joke
Our conscript Tolya continues his study of violence in his airborne division of the Russian army
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Published in: oDRA Soldier’s Tale 7: Hopes dashed, business as usual!
Our conscript Tolya had such high hopes of his new posting in the elite regiment of the Russian airborne division,...
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Published in: oDRA Soldier's Tale 6: new beginnings? Perhaps!
Conscript Tolya has been moved again, this time to a show regiment. Life suddenly looks rather better, but is it for real?
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Published in: oDRWho is Russia's top intellectual?
Throughout Russian and Soviet history, the intellectual has played a central and hugely influential role in society....