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
Kyrgyzstan’s October parliamentary elections revealed a number of teething problems in law and systems, write Alexey Semyonov, Baktybek Abdrisaev and Kuban Taabaldiev. The Kyrgyz electoral bodies would be well minded to adopt an holistic approach to solving them — from the introduction of technolo
Researching the Russian nationalistic right is a game of high stakes. Last year, I found out the hard way, writes Andreas Umland.
Dmitry Medvedev’s proposal for a new post-cold war security order offers a significant opportunity for the world. But both the West and Russia need to move on from conventional security logic, and think in terms of the human, argue Mary Kaldor and Javier Solana.
Oleg Kashin, a journalist for Kommersant newspaper, was brutally beaten in Moscow last weekend. Unknown assailants broke his jaw, legs and bent his fingers. He remains critically ill. Here we publish a selection of Kashin’s blog entries.
At the beginning of September, the Independent’s Mary Dejevsky presented an improbably flattering portrait of St Petersburg's governor Valentina Matviyenko. Pavel Stroilov was one of 33 co-complainants who referred the article to the Press Complaints Commission for alleged political bias. Here he
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 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
For almost a month, an armed conflict has been raging in the mountains of the Kamarob gorge between the forces of the Government of Tajikistan and local ‘mujohids’. This is the most serious political violence in Tajikistan for ten years. Here, in the first of a two-part article, Sophie Roche and J
Today, 15 October, the latest amendment to Georgia’s Constitution is being rushed through with indecent haste. It is passing into law without even waiting for the recommendations of the Venice Commission. It weakens parliamentary control over government and fails to enshrine the independence of th
On Monday, Sarkozy, Merkel and Medvedev will sit down to discuss a new European conception of global security. With the current order dysfunctional and inadequate, it is not before time that Russia is included in the discussion, writes Mark Leonard.
