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A Boost for the Kremlin's Soft Power

In 2009, I interviewed former RIA Novosti editor-in-chief Svetlana Mironyuk. Referring to the Russia-Georgia War of 2008 and the fact that most Western...

Protect Russian Culture and Language

At a recent meeting of Russia's literary and educational elite, President Vladimir Putin expressed his concerns about the fate of the Russian language:...

Dispelling the Smoke Screen

The statement that "smoking is harmful to your health" is only a theory, not a medical fact.

Yeltsin's Attack on White House, 20 Years On

I spent the second half of August visiting Japan and kept abreast of events in Russia by reading the local English-language press.

Illiberal Ethnic Slurs by 2 'Liberal' Activists

Journalist Oleg Kashin, who was savagely beaten near the entrance to his home, published a commentary piece on the Svobodnaya Pressa (Free Press) website...

Trying to Remain Moral Amid 'Dom 2'

President Vladimir Putin deeply offended me last month. On June 19, the Federal Communications Agency suggested that the Pyatnitsa television channel stop...

Public Television Says Life in Russia Isn't So Bad

About two years ago, one of the directors of Georgian Public Broadcaster told me that the concept for public television in Georgia was developed with...

Celebrating Press Freedom Russian-Style

World Press Freedom Day was celebrated on Thursday, and the Russian press marked the event by opposing censorship, re-examining its own values and experimenting...

Putin Is a Gift From Heaven for Novaya Gazeta

April 1 marks the anniversary of Novaya Gazeta, Russia's fearless, opposition-oriented investigative newspaper. The publication was founded 20 years...

No One Wants Glazyev at Central Bank

The shock wave from the explosion of the meteorite on Feb. 15 was felt not only in Chelyabinsk but also throughout the Russian media.

The Kremlin Needs Smart PR

While I was attending the World Newspaper Congress in Kiev in September, one of the heads of UNESCO asked me, "Aren't you frightened of living in a...

opinion Alexei Pankin

How Journalists Defend Against Lawlessness

I received an invitation last week to attend the national Restoring Leadership forum to be held on Tuesday. Speakers at the forum were listed as...

Zinovyev Aimed at Communism but Hit Russia

The views of Soviet dissident writer Alexander Zinovyev, much like his work and his life, cannot be categorized according to conventional ideas or...

Russians Are the Luckiest People on Earth

How lucky we are to live in Russia and not in the West or the East.

West Is on the Wrong Side of Pussy Riot

After the failed putsch of August 1991, the democratic West had an opportunity to establish a protectorate over Russia and conduct radical political...

A Soviet Manager Will Save Public TV

The creation of public television in Russia reminds me of the financial crisis that hit in August 1998.

Putin's Split Personality

Paul the Octopus correctly predicted the outcomes of a surprising number of games in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Likewise, the weekly magazine Odnako...

Putin's Sobchak Problem

In a recent article that ran in Russia Beyond the Headlines, a newspaper supplement that is produced by state-owned Rossiiskaya Gazeta and is distributed...

How Pensioners Can Make Elections Honest

Vladimir Lenin once said, "Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the entire country." Today, that slogan would read: "Communism is fair...

And Now for a Scandal About Public TV

Public television will be established in Russia any day now. The only person who knows the details of this station — which is supposed to be independent...

The Public Television Predicament

Responding to efforts to formulate a concept of public-service broadcasting in Russia, legendary television personality Anatoly Lysenko quipped: "The...

Russians Want Daylight More Than Democracy

Some members of the Moscow intelligentsia have been working overtime to come up with rather outlandish material for the media.

Why Russians Would Vote for a Bolshevik

I recently bumped into an old acquaintance who, without even bothering to say hello, immediately asked, "Are you going to the next protest rally on Feb...

Russia's Media More Accurate Than in the West

I spoke with about 100 pleasant young people last week at the monthly meeting that Russian Reporter magazine editors and journalists hold with readers...

The Soviet James Bond

Last week, the army ceremoniously laid to rest retired Colonel Vitaly Shlykov with a three-volley salute and an honor guard marching under the Russian...

Going From Earthquakes to Elections on TV

The State Duma election television campaign kicked off Nov. 5 by intruding on the usual morning programming. In nonelection times, the programming follows...

Medvedev Surfed His Way to Irrelevance

According to a joke that circulated at the recent Russian Internet Week forum, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not allow President Dmitry Medvedev...

Common Way to Fight Enemy No. 1

The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper called former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was given a seven-year sentence last week, "Yulia Khodorkovskaya...

Kudrin's Wise Advice to Curb Defense Costs

The Russian media discussed Kudrin's dismissal even more enthusiastically than it did the news of the tandem switch announced at United Russia's convention...

When People Start to Laugh at Their Leaders

Columnists consider it a major stroke of luck when an important political event occurs on a Thursday. That gives them the opportunity to discuss it with...

The Prokhorov-Khodorkovsky Tandem

Soviet communism was ultimately buried by two of its most prominent native sons — Communist Party General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and Moscow Communist...

Why Georgia Has Friends and Russia Doesn't

It is difficult to imagine a greater joy than visiting Georgia. Amazingly, the blood spilled in the Russia-Georgia war three years ago has not cooled...

Public Television Is Good for Democracy

During the Petersburg Dialogue public forum held in Hanover in late July, President Dmitry Medvedev posted comments on his blog under the heading:...

Farewell to a Great Scholar

When I visited my friend, political scientist Dmitry Furman, on Aug. 18, 1991, our intense discussion of the political situation in the country lasted...

Drinking Is a Reporter's Sacred Ritual

Journalism is a dangerous profession. Journalists have a high mortality rate — and not just because of torture chambers in repressive regimes, contract...

Izvestia Offers Snapshot of Russian Zhizn

Ever since 2005, when I was the editor of the opinion page at Izvestia, one minor detail has stuck in my memory. The editor-in-chief read a stack...

Private Media Fib as Much as the State

President Dmitry Medvedev recently wrote on his blog that he favors privatizing state-controlled media. But Medvedev has a history of flip-flopping...

Medvedev's Digital Split Personality

Sometimes I think President Dmitry Medvedev has a split personality. On one hand, he stubbornly fights legal nihilism in public and official life....

Saving Russia With a Great Flood

In the years leading up to the Soviet collapse, a friend of mine kept saying the only way to save the country would be to wipe out Moscow with...

How the Internet Turns Journalists Into Punks

It seems as if Russia's best journalists have set out to completely undermine President Dmitry Medvedev's stated ideology that "freedom is better than...

A Pact With the Devil

The Mikhail Khodorkovsky affair is a classic tragedy — a plot unfolding against the back-drop of modern democratic mass culture. This became clear...

The Great Dacha Wars

Russia is headed for some major shocks. I came to that conclusion after reading a news release with the heading: "Yabloko Party Activists Detained...

State Television Thumbs Its Nose at Medvedev

If television and the Internet ended their standoff, the result would be a richer and more informative discussion of every subject, from Yeltsin’s legacy...

What Kashin and Medvedev Really Discussed

The public knows little about what President Dmitry Medvedev and Kommersant journalist Oleg Kashin really talked when they met in Israel last week because...

The Return of Glasnost

When President Dmitry Medvedev spoke recently in his video blog about the country’s political stagnation, it appeared that glasnost had returned to Russia...

A Future of Foul Language and Worms

At a recent round table on the Internet and democracy, a dispute broke out over the Tver governor's decision to post a blog photo of a worm allegedly found...

Sobyanin Joins Ruling Tandem as TV Hero

Until just recently, ordinary television viewers could be certain that there were two perfect people in Russia: President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister...

Creating Heroes on YouTube and Boob Tube

The Russian Reporter weekly magazine recently published a list of the 100 most memorable political events of the year. First place went to former Novorossiisk...

A True Perestroika Scholar

Georgy Arbatov — scholar, founder of the U.S.A. and Canada Institute and adviser to Soviet leaders from Leonid Brezhnev to Mikhail Gorbachev — died...

Emulating Luzhkov

During the past weeks, Russians watching state-controlled television channels were treated to a spectacle as President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister...

Smashing Heads and Chopping Off Hands

A recent article in the Financial Times began, “Listen to Russia’s president and prime minister talk about its most pressing political issue — modernizing...

Rule of Law in Ukraine and Scotland

As burly border guards took him to their station in a Ukrainian city, one political commentator rued the rule of law. That and a media mishap this summer...

Putin Is Out of Touch

For one columnist, the way that Vladimir Putin handled the Kursk disaster was notable. Exactly 10 years later, the country is confronted with another crisis...

Fiddling While Russia Burns

A political observer experienced extreme anxiety at the dacha on Saturday while listening to Ekho Moskvy's coverage of the unsanctioned demonstration on...