A series of recent international conferences have pushed the Circassian question on to the international agenda. Sufian Zhemukhov considers the historical background to the relationships between Georgia and the North Caucasus and possible future developments.
Last week in Moscow the journalist Oleg Kashin was thrashed to within an inch of his life. President Medvedev has ordered a high-level investigation into the attempted murder. Who would stand to gain this attack and is there any hope of a swift resolution? asks Mikhail Zakharov.
President Medvedev may have declared his support for a museum complex outside St Petersburg in memory of Soviet political repression, but a year later the project is no further forward and there are plans to build over the site. Catriona Bass wonders how can words be turned into actions.
Bill Bowring is well known to anybody interested in international law, and especially in human rights in Russia. Professor of Law at Birkbeck College and a practising barrister, it was he who in 2002 established the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, which has since helped many applicants, mai
The Chekhov house, garden and archive in Yalta is a site of unique international cultural importance. Short of funding, neglected and hit by a hurricane, it faced a gloomy future. A group of British actors, scholars and Chekhov enthusiasts set up the Anthon Chekhov Foundation, which both provided
The recently published Russian government strategy paper for the North Caucasus chooses to focus solely on the socio-economic development of the region. The refusal to address key political or religious issues undermines the whole rationale for the document, laments Sergei Markedonov
The sacking of Moscow mayor Luzhkov and the continuing debacle of Khodorkovsky's second trial could be seen as tests for the Russian President. Will Medvedev pass muster? Mikhail Zygar considers the options.
Foreign analysis of contemporary Ukrainian politics has alleged a black-white conversion from freedom to autocracy. The reality is much more nuanced than that, says Ukrainian MP Alexander Feldman
A chilling account of brave journalists in Lukashenka’s Belarus, so many of whom die in unexplained circumstances. Olga Birukova hopes that Western PR gurus and journalists will not be taken in by official statements or the KGB-controlled picture of society in Belarus.
In Stalin’s time there were nearly a hundred GULag camps in Ivdel. Today, the maximum security penal colony FBU-IK 56 survives in their place. Ekaterina Lushnikova travelled there to speak to the inmates — some of Russia’s most hardened criminals.
A vital national debate about constitutional reform is under way in Ukraine. But the debate often takes no account of international political discussions or recent scholarly research. Can the new regime embrace this opportunity to lay down the foundations of a democratic future for Ukraine? Andrea
In 2014 Russia will host the Winter Olympics in Sochi, once upon a time the capital of independent Circassia. The city has 20,000 Muslims, but no mosque. Sufian Zhemukhov considers the historical reasons for official antagonism to building a mosque and its implications for the Winter Olympics.
