Susan Richards

Susan Richards is a founder of openDemocracy. She has produced a number of feature films and written a prize-winning book, 'Epics of Everyday Life', about the lives of ordinary Russians in the transition from communism. 'Lost & Found in Russia', 'Encounters in the Deep Heartland', which covers the period 1992-2008, was published by IB Tauris in May 2009.

Putin Country

As authoritarian control and renewed superpower tension dominate headlines, telling stories of Russia’s everyday heroes can reveal lost alternatives.

By Susan Richards

/ 19 Jan 2017

The motivation of the Boston Bombers

The background of the Tsarnaev family must provide some clues to the Boston bombing.

By Susan Richards

/ 23 Apr 2013

Has Russia abandoned Dagestan?

Police corruption has reached epic levels in the Russian republic of Dagestan. The men in charge with tackling the issue felt they had no option but to go public, but their actions have been met with a deafening silence from Moscow, says Susan Richards

By Susan Richards

/ 10 Apr 2013

A good infection – remembering Bookaid

Against the backdrop of Soviet disintegration, a grassroots campaign was launched from Britain to send hundreds of thousands of books to libraries across Russia and its ex-colonies. As Bookaid celebrates its twentieth anniversary, two of its organisers, Susan Richards and Ekaterina Genieva, consid

By Susan Richards

/ 29 Jun 2012

On the eve of collapse: encounters in a changing Russia

Next week marks the twentieth anniversary of the August 1991 coup attempt. While this proved a dramatic final nail in the Soviet coffin, many more fundamental changes — the breaking down of information walls and the dissipation of fear — occurred in the months and years leading up to then. Susan R

By Susan Richards

/ 12 Aug 2011

An improbable team

It took an unlikely combination of talents to start building openDemocracy’s Tower of Babel, comments one of its founders

By Susan Richards

/ 12 May 2011

Russia's security services: back in charge, out of control

Russia’s security apparatus is back in charge — as powerful, and with less holding it back than ever before. Susan Richards reflects on Wikileaks and reviews a fascinating account of Russia's unofficial second state

By Susan Richards

/ 27 Dec 2010

Tolstoy: a life too large

What else could possibly be written about Tolstoy? Before reading Rosamund Bartlett’s new biography, Susan Richards did wonder. But the fall of Soviet power has revealed material which allows us to appreciate how vividly his legacy has lived on and how relevant it remains today

By Susan Richards

/ 19 Nov 2010

Liberating Pushkin

Russia’s greatest poet Alexander Pushkin is notoriously hard for non-Russian speakers to appreciate. So Susan Richards welcomes a concise new biography of the poet by his translator Robert Chandler which strips the varnish off

By Susan Richards

/ 19 Jul 2010

Russia's drugs problem: blame the West

Why is Russia resisting international help with its spiralling drugs problem, asks Susan Richards? While the Kremlin's rhetoric reveals a profound insecurity, its policies are failing to deal effectively with the situation

By Susan Richards

/ 5 Nov 2009

Lost and Found in Russia III: My Dream House

2004 Crimea, Sevastopol. Over the years I had sent letters and messages to Novosibirsk, but there had been no response. They had vanished without trace. I found them through Anna.

By Susan Richards

/ 25 Jun 2009

Lost and Found in Russia 2: Building Heaven or Hell

1997 Novosibirsk, Siberia Ed: Before the fall of communism, Natasha and Igor were drawn to the Volga town of Marx by the expectation that once Russia's Germans were

By Susan Richards

/ 18 Jun 2009