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Dear David
Russia is hosting the G20 Summit in St Petersburg on 5-6 September. What is it for? What is Russia trying to achieve? Is the G20 anything more than a talking shop with soiled goods? Jeremy Noble in St...
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Canvassing for the vegetable vote
While Muscovites decide whether Aleksei Navalny or Sergei Sobyanin will be their next mayor, their compatriots will largely be denied a choice in Sunday’s local elections. A rigged system means ruling...
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A villa abroad is fine, but close your bank account
Well-off Russian bureaucrats have got used to having a second home abroad, whether it’s a cottage in Ukraine or a castle in Spain. But these are now under threat from Vladimir Putin’s latest...
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Have the September elections changed anything?
Recent regional elections in Russia provoked more interest than usual, mainly because charismatic and controversial opposition leader Alexei Navalny was standing in the Moscow mayoral election. Some...
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HIV positive? Russia’s reaction is negative.
In most parts of the world the incidence of HIV/AIDS is falling, but official figures for Russia show 200 new cases being recorded every day. And as Grigory Tumanov reports, if you’re a migrant worker...
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The Potemkin village is inhabited
The Valdai Conference was held on 16-19 September 2013 at a Potemkin village halfway between Moscow and St Petersburg. Vladimir Putin was holding court with a select group of invited guests, eager to...
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Dirty tricks undermine media freedom in Ukraine
Ukraine’s bright ‘Orange Revolution’ has faded, leeched of its liberal colours by the authoritarian government of President Viktor Yanukovych. Now, media freedom is under assault as well.Ukraine’s...
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The YES men
Each September sees a meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES), founded by oligarch Viktor Pinchuk to promote closer ties between Ukraine and the EU. With the deadline for an Association Agreement...
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Fear and loathing in the Moscow suburbs
An ethnic Russian is killed at a Moscow street market, supposedly by a migrant from the Caucasus; the ensuing riot by nationalist extremists leaves one dead, twenty people injured and hundreds...
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'Hands off our Russian Arctic!'
Russia’s seizure in international waters of the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, the arrests, refusal of bail and charges of piracy for activists and crew alike has provoked worldwide outrage. But what...
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Cynicism as a ruling ideology
Is cynicism the glue that keeps Russia's regime from falling apart? Alexei Levinson introduces a new series on openDemocracy Russia. Cynicism is a tried and tested way of manipulating public opinion....
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‘And the winner is…’
Capitalism has not been kind to morals and ethics in Russia, and the world of television is no exception. Knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing has become more important than making...
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The indiscreet charm of the Russian cynic
Russia’s foremost historian of culture reflects on the cultural functions of cynicism in Soviet and post-Soviet society. He ruefully concludes that Russia has yet to escape the Soviet paradigm: the...
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'Dreams of freedom? They undermine the fortitude of prisoners'
Today, 25th October, marks the tenth anniversary of the arrest of Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky, now Russia's most famous political prisoner. A short while ago, Ben Judah wrote to him asking about...
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On your marks, get set… intercept!
Russia is devoting considerable effort to trying to ensure that the Sochi Winter Olympics are safe and secure. Mark Galeotti wonders whether the real concern is not an attack on the Games but the...
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Where there’s muck, there’s brass
Protests against the proposed mining of nickel and copper in the heart of Russia’s Black Earth belt have been escalating, and so has the media smear campaign against the protesters. Konstantin...
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Neighbourhood watch
In 2009 six post-Soviet nations signed up to the EU Eastern Partnership, aimed at deepening political cooperation and economic integration. Progress has been uneven because old habits die hard and...
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The polyphonic president
Mikheil Saakashvili, ex-president of Georgia, was once hailed as the very archetype of a model post-Soviet leader – smooth-tongued and sharp-suited. But was the fluency with which he promoted himself...
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The writing on the wall?
On Friday, a Russian news agency had its publishing licence revoked, supposedly for publishing two ‘profane’ Youtube clips. For Daniil Kotsyubinsky, however, the episode was but the latest example of a...
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A father’s last dream
In July 2012, a mix of flash flooding and gross negligence conspired to kill nearly 200 in a region bordering Sochi. The path to proper accountability and compensation since then, however, has been...
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