The Russian election campaign is hotting up. In the middle of September Mikhail Prokhorov was dismissed as leader of the ‘Right Cause’ party, having fallen foul of both the party members and the Kremlin. This sets the context to an even bigger drama, and could be seen as the first stage of it. Ric
Russia’s strongman Vladimir Putin has decided that the time has come for him to return to Kremlin. oD Russia author Dmitri Travin is a native of Putin's home city of St Petersburg, and is well familiar with the conditions which shaped the Russian leader's mentality. The following article was origi
Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s appointment as leader of the pro-market liberal party ‘Right Cause’ was greeted with scepticism. Now he has effectively been dismissed and the party has split. Was this part of the original plan or was Prokhorov becoming a threat? Andrei Kolesnikov considers the rec
David Cameron’s recent visit to Russia was the subject of some snide criticism in the Russian and British press. But this superficial approach misses the main point: the purpose of the visit lay elsewhere and a good day’s work was done by both sides, says Britain’s former ambassador Tony Brenton
David Cameron’s Moscow “reset” resolved few of the fundamental issues afflicting UK-Russian relations. Yet by moving the relationship on beyond politics, the visit proved to be a rather useful one, writes Dmitri Trenin.
Russian society has never learnt what it is to feel responsibility for anything. Serfdom was abolished 150 years ago, engendering feelings of panic in many of the ‘liberated’ peasants. Ivan Karamazov uses the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor to demonstrate that it’s easier when there is no freedom a
In the past Soviet citizens would flock to Crimea for their summer holidays. In 1954 Khrushchev handed it over to Ukraine; in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed and Crimea suddenly became ‘abroad,’ a tricky situation for the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Feelings ran high, but have calmed down recently, t
Mintimer Shaimiyev served in the government of Tatarstan during Soviet times (1969-91) and was subsequently President of the republic for nearly 20 years. Oleg Pavlov talked to him about the past, the present and the future of his republic, and of Russia.
The story of a powerful and ambitious Armenian oligarch is also a case-study in the flaws of European Union policy in the small Caucasian republic, says Armen Haykyan.
For many in Russia the word ‘Strasbourg’ is identified with justice and the protection of human rights and the European Court receives thousands of applications every year. But recent proposed amendments to Russian laws would make the process of applying to Strasbourg more complicated and give the
The parliamentary election has been called for 4 December and the jockeying for position among the opposition parties will doubtless increase as politicians return refreshed from their holidays. How can those outside the system have any effect at all on the outcome? Grigorii Golosov considers some
The Black Sea republic of Abkhazia has elected its third president since securing effective independence from Georgia in 1993. The tiny country faces economic and social difficulties, in part deriving from its lack of international recognition. But its democratic experience deserves more attention
