The trial of Mikhail Suprun has become the latest cause célèbre in Russia’s continuing history wars. A trumped up charge, a sloppily worded article in the Criminal Code: the case should never have come to court. Now the verdict is about to be handed down – though the expected bad publicity is bein
United Russia may have obtained a technical victory in Sunday’s disputed parliamentary elections, but their failure to obtain 50% of the votes has imparted serious psychological damage on the ruling elite. It has also emboldened the public, which for the first time in a long time realises it can m
Russia holds parliamentary elections on Sunday, but with most of the important questions already well answered, there is little in the way of pre-election suspense. Tanya Lokshina writes on crows, apathy and a growing number for whom Putin’s soft authoritarianism is already yesterday’s story.
The catcalls that greeted Vladimir Putin when he appeared at a sports event in Moscow show that for many Russians, the once fearsome leader has been turned into a largely ludicrous and contemptible figure. For Daniil Kotsyubinsky, the blame for such a damaging collapse can be placed firmly at the
Russia goes to the polls on Sunday for parliamentary elections, yet Grigorii Golosov has failed to notice much of a campaign. Rather than presenting a case in a traditional electoral manner, it seems the authorities have settled on a different formula: mobilising state-dependent citizens and denyi
In a Russia that is neither a traditional authoritarian regime run by hereditary dynasty, nor a true democracy with power focused in official institutions, the distribution of power is best understood as a web of unofficial networks. This, explains Vadim Kononenko, is why the return of Putin to th
The island of Sakhalin, once described by Chekhov as ‘hell’, lies six time-zones removed from Moscow in the Russian Far East. But when it comes to the upcoming elections, the apparent inevitability of victory for the status quo provokes very similar reactions, no matter where you live. Ksenya Semy
Russia will hold a general election in December. ‘United Russia’, the party in power, has to win and will do all it can to ensure that it does. There are many tricks in the book, lawful and unlawful, but the recent Putin-Medvedev announcement has raised levels of discontent and the voter is always
Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Communist Party is enjoying a mini-revival as a channel for popular discontent with the government. But its leadership is too rooted in the past and concerned with retaining control of the party to exploit this advantage, says Vladimir G
As Putin once more readies himself for the presidency, Elena Godlevskaya surveys the level of opposition in Oryol region. People are starting to wake up, she says, but they aren't entirely sure what to do yet.
Occupying power while showing no intent to take possession of it, faithful servant Dmitry Medvedev could not have been more obliging to his master. Yet handing back power in such circumstances will be painful for the still-young president. His embitterment may yet play out in interesting ways, wri
Russia's ruling tandem have hung their economic policy high up on a mast: oil prices will hold, they say … and, well, even if they do drop, dwindling reserves should just about cover it. As ex-Finance Minister Kudrin realised, this is a foolish game that runs the risk of total catastrophe, writes
