The presidential election in December is unlikely to usher in a new president, young people feel no link to their Soviet past, and the wolf Lukashenka isn’t about to turn vegetarian. European Poet of Freedom Uladzimier Arlou is a towering figure in Belarus; here he talks to Ingo Petz.
When Moscow’s Mayor Yuri Luzhkov was dethroned in late September, heritage campaigners breathed a collective sigh of relief. Luzhkov’s crude architectural vision was, after all, one of the official reasons for his dismissal. Yet just a few weeks later, campaigners have a new fight on their hands.
Russia is deep in reflection about a mass murder that left twelve dead. For Andrei Konchalovsky, the most shocking thing about the Kuschevskaya killings was neither crime nor bungled cover-up, but the sobering thought that Russians are not really citizens. He implores his fellow countrymen to find
The EU has missed a trick or two in grasping Russia's foreign policy potential, says Fabrizio Tassinari. If they returned to an approach of pragmatic tit-for-tat, the Europeans would have a far better chance of achieving their broader policy goals.
The story of scores being settled with a brutal mass murder in southern Russia has hit the Russian national press. It reveals much about the links between organised crime and power in the country today and gives the lie to the propaganda machine’s claims of increasing happiness and stability.
Since 2008 Russia and Poland have engaged with each other in a way that would previously have been inconceivable. Some issues remain to be confronted, but they are not insurmountable. Other Russian neighbours would do well to take note, maintains Dmitri Trenin
When a professor and police colonel were arrested and charged for printing a book in memory of the victims of Stalinist Terror, many believed officials would soon recognize the absurdity of the case. A year later, however, the Archangelsk affair shows no signs of being dropped. Is it a case of loc
President Medvedev recently sacked the longstanding Moscow mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, despite his closeness to Putin. This move, redolent of Soviet politics, won him no points and now the activities of the new mayor are threatening to affect Putin too. Regular changes of government are essential, explai
Is the December presidential election going to be more of the same? Lukashenka has been president for 16 years, but this time he is playing at democracy. Could his game get the better of him? Olga Birukova fears probably not, but a recent survey might be cause for hope.
On Thursday evening, prominent TV journalist Leonid Parfyonov broke with the etiquette of live award ceremonies, and made an unannounced and sensational attack on the state of Russian journalism. Russian TV bosses have become slaves to government bureaucrats, he said, and in so doing are complicit
On Sunday, Moldova goes to the polling booths for the fourth time in nineteen months. Despite the best efforts of leading politicians to emphasize a multi-vectored foreign policy, most Moldovans still see the election as a straight choice between the EU and Russia. Alexa Chopivsky interviews Prime
Russia’s summer of the wildfires brought about a change in society, says Andrei Loshak. Previously the only possible options for those disenchanted with the system were to take the streets or pack our bags and leave. Now we have another: self-help and self- organisation, much in the spirit of the
