When it comes to loss, this city has form stretching back to the Soviet era. But is the scandal surrounding the city's Opera House just another page in this century-long saga?
It's cuts all round as Russia's economy takes a nosedive.
Elites throughout the former Soviet Union are cracking down on dissent. But before Russia watchers start criticising the region’s repressive governments, they should first engage with the criticism, which has long been levelled at them.
The Orthodox Church's acquisition of culturally significant buildings in Kaliningrad raises questions into ownership of the past in Russia's exclave on the Baltic coast.
A recent statement by a prominent Russian opposition figure is testament to an unpalatable truth: Crimea’s annexation is popular with Russia’s ‘liberal elite.’
Under Patriarch Kirill, the Russian Orthodox Church has become an integral element of the hegemonic narrative that has been created in Putin’s Russia, to inoculate the country from pernicious outside influences.
The relationship between religion and ethnicity on the one hand, and civic assimilation on the other, is far less harmonious than Putin’s magniloquence asserts.
As Ukraine turns into an oligarch republic, civil society has few chances left to make itself the true victor of EuroMaidan.
The sanctions knife cuts both ways – rallying around the flag, and regime change.
There are currently 59,000 women in Russian penal establishments. For many of them prison is not so much a punishment, more a way of life. на русском языке
If the EU is serious about helping Ukraine, both parties should focus on the country’s most glaring problem, and the Maidan’s principal demands – justice and the rule of law.
The EU may like to think of Moldova as its ‘star pupil’, but its unconditional support for successive corrupt governments may have lost it the support of the country’s people.
