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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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