A Soviet-era dissident and a star of 1990s politics, Viktor Aksyuchits, made his name as the founding father of the Christian Democratic movement — an effort to forge a potent alliance of religion and politics that collapsed when he landed on the wrong side...

Shuvalov's comments came after two public rallies in Moscow last month, the biggest in about two decades, which prompted President Dmitry Medvedev to introduce bills in a bid to loosen the Kremlin's grip on the political opposition. Some protesters, however, demanded more, including new elections of the State Duma. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, who led the Russian delegation at a global economic forum in Davos, condemned his country's political...

Members of the political opposition put in an application Monday to hold a rally on Feb. 26 called "Farewell to the Political Winter" on Ploshchad Revolyutsii next to the Kremlin. Members of the political opposition put in an application Monday to hold a...

The concerns of foreign businesses regarding the political situation in Russia are mostly the result of reports in the the Western press, head of state-run bank VTB Andrei Kostin said Thursday. The concerns of foreign businesses regarding the political situation in Russia are mostly the result of...

... presidential election only a few weeks away, a new exhibit of campaign materials at Moscow's State Public Historical Library sheds light on popular tactics used to appeal to voters. Organized thematically the exhibit — "From the History of Russian Political Technology" — draws from the library's collection of over 10,000 items gathered since 1989. Especially noteworthy is a display of "black PR," slanderous materials falsely released under a candidate's name. The exhibit claims...

Russia is technically capable of organizing fair elections but so far lacked the political will. Russia is technically capable of organizing fair elections but so far lacked the political will, European lawmakers said Monday. Last month's State Duma elections were "marked by a convergence of the state and the governing party...

... year. Last year was very fruitful for Russian-Finnish cooperation, with bilateral trade reaching pre-crisis levels, "but there are … prospects for the future. I think we could discuss them, especially as our countries are facing important political events, I mean elections," Medvedev said, according to a transcript on the Kremlin web site. Having served two six-year consecutive terms, Halonen can't run for the presidency in the elections to be held in Finland on Sunday. The country's...

... satirical diatribes painting him as an evil puppet master manipulating the electoral system from behind the scenes. Central Elections Commission chairman Vladimir Churov has grown weary of the criticism, and insists that he has been wrongly portrayed as a political mastermind when, in fact, he is just a civil servant filling a bureaucratic post. "I don't have political opponents. I am not a politician. I am not even a man. I am the chairman of the elections commission," Churov said in response...

... wide array of movements and organizations, including a number of fringe groups not affiliated with the liberal opposition movement. Among the groups represented were the opposition parties Yabloko, Parnas and Left Front; the Communist Party; liberal political movement Solidarity; and the feminist, anarchist and nationalist movements, with members of the last marching with white, black and yellow imperial Russian flags.  Supporters of lesser-known groups, such as the Pirate Party and a group calling...

... opposite is true. Taken together, the five demands put forward by protesters at the Bolotnaya Ploshchad and Prospekt Akademika Sakharova rallies comprise a coherent program with a clear strategic goal. If those demands are met by the Kremlin, Russia's political system will undergo a fundamental change and become a democratic state governed by rule of law. The first demand is that the authorities immediately release all political prisoners and those who were deliberately incarcerated on trumped-up...

As Vladimir Putin cruises to an assured presidential victory, Russia's resilient protest movement has to demonstrate that it has the strategy to convert street energy into meaningful political change beyond March 4. As Vladimir Putin cruises to an assured presidential victory, Russia's resilient protest movement has to demonstrate that it has the strategy to convert street energy into meaningful political change beyond March 4....

Someone once likened the political positions of the extreme left with a broken clock that never shows the right time. But as everyone knows, a broken clock shows the correct time with astronomical precision twice every 24 hours, something a functioning...

President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with leaders of unregistered political parties later this month to discuss his plans for political reform, but not mass protests. President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with leaders of unregistered political parties later this month to discuss his plans for political reform...

... annual rate of 7 percent, similar to the rate that the Asian tigers grew when they were at a similar level of development. Needless to say, the Soviet Union never came close to these growth rates. The second lesson from this period is the large role that political and legal institutions played in the growth, particularly those that protected property rights and enforced contractual obligations. These institutions are very difficult to build, especially if they have no political support. That is why reformers...

... naive demands, dubious leaders and unrealizable aspirations. Though a founding member of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's All-Russia People's Front, Titov has consistently espoused the need for deep institutional reform. He is a member of the Right Cause political party and owner of the Russian champagne manufacturer Abrau-Dyurso. The business community was concerned, Titov said, by the opaque slogans of protesters who on Dec. 10 and Dec. 24 succeeded in staging the biggest rallies Russia has seen for...

... the Federal Youth Agency — which Yakemenko heads — will distance itself from the group and that Yakemenko will soon be out of a job. Experts say the fiery youth leader's position in the government has become weaker after the Kremlin's top political operative Vladislav Surkov was pushed out as deputy head of the presidential administration. Kommersant's general director, Demyan Kudryavtsev, said recently leaked e-mails linked a 2008 distributed-denial-of-service attack on the paper's website...

The pending bill reintroducing gubernatorial elections may loosen the top-down political system and inject a fair amount of rivalry among regional powerhouses, but it could be investors who gain from that future thaw. The pending bill reintroducing gubernatorial elections may loosen the top-down political system...

... will appraise the results of the elections and probably ask Russia to agree on a roadmap with Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, or PACE, laying out specific stages and contents relating to substantive reforms in the process of democratizing political life. This must include a new electoral law; a new procedure for registering new political parties that will finally make genuine political competition possible; a truly independent judiciary; robust measures to combat corruption and bureaucracy;...

... of violent revolution if it did not break conservative resistance and move quickly to democracy. 
Prokhorov, speaking in an interview, said Russians had shaken off a post-Soviet apathy and were now "just crazy about politics." Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire challenging Vladimir Putin for the presidency in March, said Russia faced the danger of violent revolution if it did not break conservative resistance and move quickly to democracy. Prokhorov...

... the latest reform effort to crumble under Medvedev's watch, which began in 2008 with high hopes for the creation of a "modernized" Russia. No area of life was to go untouched: he would tackle corruption, modernize the economy, open up the political system, streamline the country's bloated bureaucracy and even get Russians to live healthier lives. Liberals hoped that the relatively unknown technocrat could even rollback Putin's "power vertical" — the centralized system built...