Mikheil Saakashvili, ex-president of Georgia, was once hailed as the very archetype of a model post-Soviet leader – smooth-tongued and sharp-suited. But was the fluency with which he promoted himself as a modern messiah merely a case of pouring old Georgian wine into new bottles?
Ukraine – an ‘unknown’ country that lies at the margins of Europe. A political football kicked back and forth between Russia and the EU. Yet beyond the politics lies a new, and magical literature; one that revels in dirt and despair, and dares to dream....
From hunting tigers to faking demonstrations, reality is a rare ingredient in the Kremlin kitchen. After years of controlling the visual narrative, however, there are signs that Russia’s ‘TV tsar’ might just be losing his touch. Peter Pomerantsev reviews ‘Fragile Empire’ by Ben Judah.
How far has culture become a frontline in Russian politics, and how does it compare to earlier periods in the country's history? Introducing a new week-long CEELBAS debate on oDRussia, Artemy Troitsky, Peter Pomerantsev and Oliver Carroll discuss the nature of art, protest and the absurd.
Throughout the Putin heyday, Russian political discourse was invented, manipulated and owned by a handful of Kremlin spin doctors. Over the last year, that changed. Though they failed to make real policy headway, the opposition did something potentially just as significant: they began to win the w
As a British producer selling British programmes in a country that loves British TV, Peter Pomerantsev thought success was assured. He hadn't banked on the peculiarities of the Russian TV industry...
