Twenty-five years after the Chernobyl disaster, Barys Piatrovich recalls the tension of unknowing that gripped him and those around him during the days that followed. Today, barely any of the Chernobyl evacuees are still alive. Spread throughout the country, they died alone and unnoticed, statisti
Ukrainian identity has historically been defined in opposition to Russia, but an anti-Russian agenda is unable to bind together a state with a large ethnic Russian population. With the Yanukovych administration now taking a neo-Stalinist approach to history and education, airbrushing out nationali
An analysis of human rights violations in Russia reveals the extent to which they occur as the direct result of institutional corruption. However well intentioned, recent attempts at reform in the army and police have fallen short of tackling this fundamental connection, writes Andrey Kalikh.
It is clear Viktor Yanukovych's recent moves against his predecessor Leonid Kuchma were driven by not by justice, but a mixture of revenge, intimidation and diversion. The Ukrainian President may well discover that his ulterior strategies are flawed, and that he is simply playing into the hands of
Despite its position out on Europe’s eastern flank, Belarus has historically and culturally been at the heart of European civilisation. Sooner or later, its time will come to rejoin the family of democratic nations, writes Uladzimir Arlou
After months of slow-burn, the British phone "hacking" scandal (where the News of the World was shown to have gained illegal access to celebrity voicemails) has taken a dramatic turn. Rupert Murdoch's tabloid has finally admitted its guilt, and with that revealed a web of cover up and cronyism inv
Half-Chechen, one-time aide to Khodorkovsky, sometime novelist and current-day political technician, Vladislav Surkov’s life story lacks anything but colour. Yet the adjectives most usually attributed to his political figure are “grey” and “shadowy”. Richard Sakwa reviews a collection of speeches
Optimistic reports of the Kremlin embracing liberal party politics have proven highly exaggerated. Such an agenda lacks the full support of the ruling elites, and as such is doomed to failure, explains Andrei Kolesnikov.
Gorbachev is hailed for doing away with Soviet totalitarianism, yet his predecessor Andropov was the man actually responsible for preparing liberal reform some twenty years earlier. With Gorbachev hopelessly unaware of the forces he was unleashing, failure was inevitable, argues Andrei Konchalovsk
Public confidence in Russia’s “tandemocracy” has plummeted to record lows, and a majority now believe their country is headed in the wrong direction. While Arabic-style street protest remains unlikely, cracks in the ruling elite are now obvious, with some factions openly pushing for radical reform
Georgii Gongadze, inconvenient Ukrainian journalist, died in horrible circumstance nearly 11 years ago. His murderers may be behind bars, but who gave the order for his killing? Ordinary Ukrainians know – it was (then) President Leonid Kuchma. Despite a new case being opened against him, Valery Ka
In the course of twelve months, Russians will go to the polls twice – first, the parliamentary elections and then the big one: the presidential. Comparisons between Medvedev at this stage of his presidency and his predecessors are interesting, explains Alexei Levinson. Yet the Putin-Medvedev situa
