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Counting down to Russia’s 2016 Duma Elections
As Russia gears up for a parliamentary elections this autumn, how can the country's embattled opposition and civil society offer a real contest to the Kremlin's "imitation democracy"?March 2016:...
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Is neoliberalism applicable to Russia? A response to Ilya Matveev
Attempts to call the Putin regime “neoliberal” get one fundamental thing wrong: capitalism doesn’t exist in Russia. РусскийMoscow city. СС BY-SA 4.0 GURken / WikiMediaCommons. Some rights reserved.oDR...
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Depoliticising protests in Armenia
Years of social and environmental protests in Armenia have proven one thing — our demands must be political in nature. РусскийJuly 2014: police officers block activists from "Stand up, Armenia!" from...
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Ukraine’s rulers are backing themselves into a corner
As Europe's sanctions resolve against Russia evaporates, Ukraine's domestic political contest is heating up — Kyiv is turning its sights on the constitutional court. 14 April 2016: Ukraine's president...
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Neoliberalism, mining and Armenia's politics of plunder
The resurgence of fighting with Azerbaijan could hinder progressive mobilisation in Armenia, but recent environmental initiatives reveal the appetite for resistance to the economy of extraction.23...
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Putin’s incredible shrinking circle
Ivanov’s departure leaves few voices able to speak truth to Putin. June 2015: Russian president Vladimir Putin shakes hands with his chief of staff Sergei Ivanov. Pavel Golovkin / AP/Press Association...
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Who do I call if I want to speak to "pro-Russian forces" in Georgia?
In Georgia, whether you're in opposition or in power, you can always call your opponent an agent of the Kremlin.In recent years, Georgia's political discourse has been reoriented around the figure of...
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Goodbye Karimov
We don't know whether Uzbekistan's leader is alive or dead. But the system he created will live on.29 August: Municipal workers clean Tashkent's Independence Square ahead of Independence Day in...
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The green shoots of Russian grassroots activism
What do two Moscow parks and a truck drivers’ trade union have in common? They have been the focus of protests that have shown that the Russian public may be losing its traditional passivity.Over the...
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The green shoots of Russian grassroots activism (part 2)
Our story on Russia’s grassroots activism continues. From Moscow’s parks to federal highways, ordinary citizens learn the power of protest – and of solidarity.In this series of drawings, Russian artist...
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Kremlinology: an intervention
Protests and strikes across Russia show that the country’s “silent majority” is becoming louder. But are pundits even listening?Staring at shadows: Moscow’s Kremlin at night. CC: ePsilon / Flickr. Some...
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A stalemate in Belarus
Two new opposition candidates prepare to take their seats after rigged parliamentary elections in Belarus. As ever, the real losers are ordinary citizens.A voter at Minsk’s polling station 509, 11...
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Why Russia needs the Levada Center
Independent sociological research in Russia is under serious threat. The country’s leading non-governmental polling agency has been labelled a “foreign agent” and may have to close. РусскийFor 28...
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Goodbye, Bastrykin?
Moscow has a new motto: work a little harder, steal a little less. A big name may have just fallen foul of it. Bastrykin gives a speech at an assembly of Russia’s Investigative Committee. Moscow,...
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Russia’s reluctant elections
The results may be predictable, but Russia’s parliamentary elections hint at the next stage of regime mobilisation.18 September, 2016: residents young and old vote in Ekaterinburg. (c) Pavel Lisitsyn /...
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Russia’s security services are trying to reform their way out of the shadows
Sweeping reforms to Russia’s power ministries show that the FSB has the country’s security monopoly in its sights. Sudden and sweeping reforms to Russia’s security ministries don’t signal a return to...
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Release Ilgar Mammadov
As Azerbaijan votes on constitutional amendments today, let’s not forget the country’s political prisoners.Ilgar Mammadov has been in prison since 2013. Source: Meydan.tv. All rights reserved.As...
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Georgia’s politics of piety
Georgia’s church is independent of the state. How long before the state can free itself from the church?Georgian Orthodox Christmas celebrations at Tbilisi’s Sameba cathedral, 2012. (c) Shakh Aivazov /...
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On 25 years of postmodernity in the South Caucasus
A quarter century since the collapse of Soviet rule in Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, where is the region now and what can come next?Life in Stepantsminda village, Georgia. CC Marco Fieber / Flickr....
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Big trouble in little Georgia
For years, Georgia’s politics has been organised around the “search for a saviour”. But now this search has quietly ended, what is left?Georgia's United National Movement, pictured here, is squaring...
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Our man in Moldova
In courting the country’s most loathed oligarch, the EU and US will only lose the sympathy of ordinary Moldovans.Moldovan oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc gives an interview for discussion show VIP Confidente,...
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Making do with the crew
In the aftermath of parliamentary elections, can Georgia build a more stable political culture?Supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream party take part in a rally in Tbilisi, 8 October. (c) Sergei Grits...
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Sergey Kirienko, from nuclear to political power
After ten years as head of Rosatom, Sergey Kirienko is now deputy head of Russia’s Presidential Administration. What will he bring to the job? РусскийGeneral director of Rosatom Sergey Kirienko attends...
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The fate of Georgian dreams
Amid widespread apathy and corruption, Georgia’s democracy faces all too familiar obstacles.Supporters of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) rally in Tbilisi on 5 October. (c) Shakh Aivazov...
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Tbilisi’s Panorama project is urban boosterism at its worst
A massive new construction project overlooking Georgia’s capital reveals the true extent of an oligarch’s grip on politics — and Tbilisi’s struggle to become a city for all its people.The man in the...
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Welcome to the post-post-Soviet era
To this day, Lenin lies in state on Red Square. There’s still space in the mausoleum for more modern heroes – and their ideas. РусскийLenin gives a speech before his mausoleum, while Stalin burns with...
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Wołyń: towards memory dialogue between Poland and Ukraine
A new film opens up the horrors of the Second World War, but will it enable reconciliation?Detail from a promotional poster of Wojciech Smarzowski’s 2016 film Wołyń. Image courtesy of repetuary.pl....
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Moldova’s election: against all of the above
Moldova’s presidential race isn’t over yet. Neither are the country’s geopolitical divides or its long-standing struggle with oligarchs. Can they ever be?A polling station in Moldova’s capital of...
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Make Moldova great again
Moldovans are diverse in culture, language and political preference, but united by a lack of faith in their leaders. How does that bode for a second round of presidential elections?“Dodon is Trump’s...
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The roots of Russia’s atomised mourning
Post-Soviet people have spent two decades mourning a society that never existed. РусскийThe transformation of Soviet ideology happened through the gradual disappearance of that “ideology” in Soviet...
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Dissecting Russia’s winter of protest, five years on
Five years ago, thousands took to Russia’s streets to protest electoral fraud in what became a push against Putin’s status quo. Researchers discuss the significance of this moment and the movements it...
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Putin Country
As authoritarian control and renewed superpower tension dominate headlines, telling stories of Russia’s everyday heroes can reveal lost alternatives.Workers walk along a railway line into the...
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Putinism as Gaullism
There are limits of defining a regime by the name of its leader, but Putinism has the echoes of post-war France, and of its president. Remembering De Gaulle, Paris, 2010. CC-by-SA-3.0: Gunasekhar Karri...
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In St Petersburg, long-distance truck drivers are holding out for victory
Russia’s long-distance truck drivers have started a nationwide strike. But without support from political parties or other groups, how far can they go? РусскийPetersburg's trucker protest is part of a...
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Fighting back, in the back of beyond
Across Russia, active citizens are fighting for their neighbourhoods, livelihoods and against systemic corruption. The moment when these agendas meet will be an important one.April 2017. Truck drivers...
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