The car-manufacturing city of Togliatti will this Sunday go to the polls for a second time to elect its new mayor. The choice is between an unofficial candidate from the ruling party and a cosmopolitan fomer regional minister for ecology. Valery Pavlukevich, a journalist from nearby Samara, travel
Vladimir Putin’s support machine was strong enough to guarantee him victory on 5th March. Putin’s strength is the weakness of the opposition. But he should be worried by the divisions within his own government. His days would be counted if parts of his own elite chose to ally themselves with parts
The protest movement didn’t achieve its ultimate goal at Sunday’s presidential elections, but Yuri Saprykin, a prominent member of the protest movement, believes it has already achieved a lot and its best work lies ahead. Here he provides a ten point analysis of the protest movement’s situation in
Amid growing proof of ‘dirty tricks’ during Sunday’s presidential election, the new Russian government has made it clear that the opposition can expect no concessions. Protesters at rallies in Moscow and St Petersburg have been arrested and subjected to police brutality. Tikhon Dzyadko, a journali
This Sunday Russians elect their new president in an election Putin is virtually certain to win. Putin's campaign has been notable for its anti-western and anti-American rhetoric, writes Susanne Sternthal. Will this aggressive rhetoric help Putin withstand the challenge of an awakening Russian civ
A series of conversations with young Athens professionals convinces Daniel Nethery that Greece's problems are more complicated than easy diagnoses often allow.
The effects of the financial crisis are being felt at the sharp end of the local courts system in the United States, finds Matt Kennard.
A majority of Russians – and not all of them opponents of Putin – demand modernisation. Yet the predominance of the bureaucratic classes and importance of informal favours in Putin’s Russia makes that a near impossible task. Paradoxically, the only way out for Putin may be to absorb his bureaucrat
Israel will seek United States endorsement for any decision to confront Iran - but its allies there will more likely to be found in the heartland than in the White House.