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...
View ArticleIn 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...
View ArticlePutinism 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...
View ArticlePutin 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...
View ArticleDissecting 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...
View ArticleThe 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...
View ArticleMake 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...
View ArticleMoldova’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...
View ArticleWołyń: 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....
View ArticleWelcome 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...
View ArticleTbilisi’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...
View ArticleThe 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...
View ArticleSergey 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...
View ArticleMaking 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...
View ArticleOur 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,...
View ArticleBig 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...
View ArticleOn 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....
View ArticleGeorgia’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 /...
View ArticleRelease 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...
View ArticleRussia’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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