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Book Review: Mikhail Shishkin, 'Calligraphy Lesson'
‘Only art is capable of creating moments where our “unreal”, mortal time intersects with its “real” counterpart,’ says Shishkin. ‘Literature in modern Russia,’ writes historian Orlando Figes in A...
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Anarchism, Russian-style
The village of Kolionovo has a reputation for independent mindedness and upsetting the authorities. Now they’ve created their own currency - the koliony. The story of Russian farmer Mikhail Shlyapnikov...
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Georgia's puzzled transition
The disintegration of the Soviet Union has given birth to a new and difficult reality in Georgia. Twenty five years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgian society lives in a world of...
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What Armenians are protesting (and what they’re not)
Fresh protests in Yerevan have their roots in a number of deep-rooted domestic issues in Armenian politics. But we make comparisons to other protest movements at our peril. Last night, some 6,000...
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Kadyrov and Putin: parallel lives
While Vladimir Putin has given Ramzan Kadyrov a free hand in Chechnya, the relationship between Moscow and Grozny is far more complicated than it first appears. On 3 June, a group of masked men...
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I was on a Russian nationalist hit list
In Moscow City Court, the suspected leader of a far-right terror group with links to the Kremlin stands accused of five murders. I was on their hit list. In Moscow City Court, Ilya Goryachev, the...
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The power of Electric Yerevan
Strong-arm tactics and cynical compromises are yet to send Yerevan's protesters home. Is this the beginning of the end for the politics of old in Armenia? On 22 June, roughly 2,000 protesters gathered...
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Russia’s last independent mayor is going down fighting
In Petrozavodsk, Karelia, the conflict between Russia’s last independent mayor and the governor has turned nasty. The political fallout could reach the Kremlin.In Russia's North West, the struggle...
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Unpaid wages halt progress at Russia’s flagship space project
The Russian government is throwing money at its new cosmodrome in the Far East. Its workers, however, have seen very little of it. Located near the Chinese border, the Vostochnyi cosmodrome was meant...
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The ‘Switzerland of Central Asia’ is not looking very Swiss
Kyrgyzstan, the ‘Switzerland of Central Asia’, has been moving closer to Russia, with perhaps predictable results. In recent years, Kyrgyzstan has been repeatedly labeled as the ‘Switzerland of Central...
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Putin’s leaders of the pack
How has a motorcycle club managed to entangle itself so closely with Russia’s political and religious elite? Politics in Russia can take on the most unexpected forms, and the latest media heroes are a...
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Mukacheve puts Ukraine to the test
After a deadly fight between a volunteer battalion and local police over smuggling in the country's western borderlands, Ukraine finds itself at another critical juncture.Last week’s shoot-out in the...
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Samara’s governor takes aim at higher education
Down in Samara on the Volga river, the city’s higher education institutions are facing cuts and closure. And many people are far from happy.Down on the Volga river, Samara State University (SGU) is...
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Azerbaijan's failed rebranding
No matter how much time and money Azerbaijan’s government spends making ‘friends’ in the west, the country is still characterised by a poor record on human rights.Browsing through the archives of...
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Russia's 'derby grrls' are upending gender politics
As the Russian state continues its conservative turn, could this fringe sport push back against the country’s gender politics?In recent years, St Petersburg has emerged as a cradle of conservative...
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Ukraine’s left: between a swamp and a hard place
With a new-found reputation for radicalism, Ukrainian politics is in flux. The left, however, are nowhere to be seen. The events of the past two years—the mass protests that led to the deposing of...
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Electioneering games in Siberia
Ahead of local elections later this year, Russia’s newly united opposition is trying its hand in Siberia. But their latest travails in Novosibirsk show what they are up against.Ahead of State Duma...
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Как украинцы живут в России в условиях конфликта
Как украинцам живется в стране, в которой постоянно ищут бандеровцев и сторонников Майдана? in English Пока на Западе считают, что Россия в состоянии войны с Украиной, а в Москве называют это...
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Would the real Maria Gaidar please stand up
Maria Gaidar, Russian opposition politician and daughter of a former prime minister, has found a new job – in Ukraine. What’s it all about?The appointment of Maria Gaidar as deputy governor of the...
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New constitution, old faces in Armenia
President Serzh Sargsyan is pushing for constitutional reform. Is it only about staying in power? The last time that amendments were made to Armenia’s post-Soviet constitution of 1995, was the 2005...
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