Politician-blogger Alexei Navalny and writer Grigory Chkhartishvili (a.k.a Boris Akunin) conclude their dialogue with an exploration of what their country might look like after democratic change. What should be the priorities for a new and free Russia?
The recent Putin-Medvedev announcement has made a lame duck of President Medvedev, who clearly no longer has any significant say in matters political or economic. But did he ever? Were Russians not just going along with the deception, as older children do to get presents from Santa Claus, in whom
The liberals' reaction to President Medvedev’s voluntary political suicide might well be described as ‘gloating disillusion.' For Daniil Kotsyubinsky, the surprising thing was some believed democratic evolution was a real possibility.
Putin could theoretically remain in power until 2024. But his plans could be undermined by the change in generations: with male life expectancy at just 59, society will soon be un-Soviet. Most people will have grown up in a completely different age and will not be content to be stuck with post-Sov
Putin’s announcement that he and Medvedev had decided long ago who would be president in 2012 has caused a furore in Russia and abroad. It will be disastrous for Russia and Putin will almost certainly find he has made a rod for his own back, says Kirill Rogov
The presidential election is still 6 months away, but speculation about who would stand i.e become president had reached fever pitch. A section of society really hoped that Medvedev would continue his liberal policies, even though signs that this could happen were few and far between. Now there is
Putin’s recent announcement that he would be “standing for” president caught people off guard, as it was intended to. For Andrei Piontkovsky, it was a disgusting spectacle and test of the Russian people that will almost certainly end badly.
The resignation of Russia's finance minister Aleksey Kudrin is a much more significant event than the Putin-Medvedev reshuffle, says Dmitry Travin. Kudrin's cool foresight was the driving force behind Russia’s economic resurgence of the early 2000s, and the main reason why the country avoided tota
When St Petersburg journalist Alexandra Garmazhapova attended a closed meeting in the local district administration, she became privy to a secret operation to maximize the vote for outgoing governor Valentina Matviyenko in Sunday’s municipal elections [which have themselves been designed to propel
