Anti-corruption blogger and activist was arrested and jailed for 15 days on Dec. 5, during the first day of protests against the fraudulent Duma election. Navalny coined the now eponymous phrase “Party of Crooks and Thieves,” in referring to the ruling party of United Russia. He wrote this letter
The protests against widely perceived fraud in Russia’s parliamentary elections were broadcast throughout the world and went viral on the internet. The role of social networks in spreading discontent and organising the demonstrations in Russian cities is a crucial development, but with the leaders
A British theatre company has brought a play about final hours of Sergei Magnitsky’s life to the London stage. Irina Shumovich reviews “One hour eighteen minutes”.
The catcalls that greeted Vladimir Putin when he appeared at a sports event in Moscow show that for many Russians, the once fearsome leader has been turned into a largely ludicrous and contemptible figure. For Daniil Kotsyubinsky, the blame for such a damaging collapse can be placed firmly at the
In a Russia that is neither a traditional authoritarian regime run by hereditary dynasty, nor a true democracy with power focused in official institutions, the distribution of power is best understood as a web of unofficial networks. This, explains Vadim Kononenko, is why the return of Putin to th
This year marked the seventy year anniversary of the Siege of Leningrad, which saw three quarters of a million of the city’s residents perish during 872 days of cold and hunger. For years, little was written about what was a hollow and Pyrrhic victory for the Soviet authorities; later the realitie
The European Union has an uncertain relationship with the ex-Soviet states to its east. A meeting in Poznan under the auspices of the union’s “eastern partnership” is a timely moment to examine what Europe needs to do to revivify its engagement, says Gevorg Ger-Gabrielyan.
Russia will hold a general election in December. ‘United Russia’, the party in power, has to win and will do all it can to ensure that it does. There are many tricks in the book, lawful and unlawful, but the recent Putin-Medvedev announcement has raised levels of discontent and the voter is always
