As a particularly harsh winter comes to a close, Alexander Valiyev reflects on recent developments in Chelyabinsk, West Siberia. While the authorities gained a lot, increasing their grip on the power vertical by canceling local elections, it was, as ever, the little man who came off worse...
Putin and Berlusconi constructed their careers based on an idea of virility at a time when the concept seemed to many to be outdated. Augusto Come investigates the strategies both have employed, and finds a striking association with images from the fascist past.
As events in North Africa and the Middle East are daily displaying, America’s global influence is rapidly waning. This is an apt time to return to Brian Landers’ Empires Apart, a hugely impressive comparative study of the imperial imperatives of America and Russia: one which stimulates reflective
The southern republic of Dagestan is now Russia’s most violent flashpoint. Besieged by militants from one side, the republic is no better served by its security services on the other. Indeed, the brutality and lawlessness of these government forces actually risks motivating yet more young men to ‘
There was “no sex in the USSR” (that, at least, is what one Soviet woman famously declared in a 1986 TV talk show). Attitudes to sex in contemporary Russia have undeniably moved on from such social conservatism. But have they changed enough to be called a revolution, asks Elena Fanailova?
Having spent six years preparing for a lucrative deal supplying arms to Iraq, Ukraine seems to be about to breach the first part of the contract. Anna Babinets suspects external forces may be at play...
External factors like the Internet, post-Soviet economic upheaval and the availability of exotic fruit have given young Russians a different system of values and approach to life. Mother of three Elena Strelnikova gives a wry overview of parenting in provincial Russia.
Boris Yeltsin inherited many problems which he had to try and address while at the same time establishing the new Russian state. Many of these problems were, and continue to be, in the North Caucasus. Yeltsin’s presidency should be judged in the round, asserts Sergei Markedonov, rather than from t
In a world riven by the conflict between Christianity and Islam, the Republic of Tatarstan offers a heartening example of centuries of peaceful coexistence, even though the Caucasus with its religious and ethnic problems is not far away. Long may it last, hopes Oleg Pavlov.
Russians can sense that Project Putin has reached its twilight. The prime minister would be well served by retiring before he is forced to. In an exclusive interview for openDemocracy, Mumin Shakirov speaks with former deputy prime minister and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
The terrorist attack at Domodedovo Airport could have exempted Medvedev from going to the Davos Forum, but in the end he went. Given what he didn’t say in his keynote speech, Dmitry Travin questions if it was actually worth the effort.
