Ten days ago, an “underground town” of migrant workers was discovered below a military factory in Moscow. The discovery played into popular anxieties about migrants and was heavily spun by the national media. For Madeleine Reeves, however, it highlighted the daily struggle migrants face to stay “l
A combination of factors make it virtually certain that Putin will emerge as president in next year's elections. The continued ambiguity over who will stand is but a calculated game played by the authorities, says Grigorii Golosov.
An analysis of human rights violations in Russia reveals the extent to which they occur as the direct result of institutional corruption. However well intentioned, recent attempts at reform in the army and police have fallen short of tackling this fundamental connection, writes Andrey Kalikh.
Volgograd has had many incarnations, but is best known as Stalingrad for the great WWII battle that raged in and around the city. Local journalist Oksana Zagrebnyova gives a wry update of life in Volgograd in the run-up to the Duma elections and the city’s relative indifference to a possible chang
In the opinion of film director Andrei Konchalovsky the true herald of liberal reform in the Soviet Union was Yury Andropov, not Mikhail Gorbachev. Irina Borogan asks if this is the same Andropov who headed the KGB through two of its darkest decades, who crushed dissidents by incarcerating them in
Half-Chechen, one-time aide to Khodorkovsky, sometime novelist and current-day political technician, Vladislav Surkov’s life story lacks anything but colour. Yet the adjectives most usually attributed to his political figure are “grey” and “shadowy”. Richard Sakwa reviews a collection of speeches
Optimistic reports of the Kremlin embracing liberal party politics have proven highly exaggerated. Such an agenda lacks the full support of the ruling elites, and as such is doomed to failure, explains Andrei Kolesnikov.
Public confidence in Russia’s “tandemocracy” has plummeted to record lows, and a majority now believe their country is headed in the wrong direction. While Arabic-style street protest remains unlikely, cracks in the ruling elite are now obvious, with some factions openly pushing for radical reform
The tragedy of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami has produced chaos on the island of Sakhalin. What little information is available is regarded with suspicion. Ksenia Semyonova monitors the mounting panic.
Once inside the wheels of the Russian legal system, the odds are stacked against you and a guilty verdict is inevitable. What keeps the wheels turning is conformism with villainy: the ability of normal people to adapt themselves to any, even the most monstrous of systems. Andrei Loshak presents a
Over the last 20 years the teaching of history has changed dramatically in Russia. Today’s children seem not to know or care very much about their country’s past. Elena Strelnikova wonders how well they are being taught in school.
