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Opinion

opinion Andrei Kolesnikov

Are the Protest Movements Dead in Russia and Belarus?

One year on, repressive measures have squelched the protest movements that arose in Khabarovsk and Belarus, but that smoldering resentment has simply gone...
Michele A. Berdy

Hazard a Guess on the Meaning of Азарт

What do you do with untranslatable words? Well, you translate them as best you can.
Andrei Kolesnikov

Why Is Stalin’s Popularity On the Rise?

To people outside of Russia, it might seem deeply shocking and incomprehensible that Stalin’s popularity is growing at such a pace. Yet it is an entirely...
Eric Lee

It's Time for Georgia to Choose Its Future

Journalists around the world call on the Georgian government to protect the media - and the public.
Andrei Soldatov

Why Is Russia Not Using Pegasus Spyware?

Pegasus spyware leak appears to vindicate FSB's paranoia concerning foreign-made surveillance technology.
Michele A. Berdy

Good and Bad Manners the Frenchified and Russian Way

Is моветон having a moment? Why yes, it is. It's on everyone's lips. So what the heck is it?
Mark Galeotti

Blockbuster Guardian Leaks Cannot Yet Either Be Discounted Nor Accepted

I’ll neither take the Guardian’s blockbuster story as gospel truth nor cynical fake. I’ll just wait and see how this plays out.
Dmitry Trenin

Afghanistan After the U.S. Pullout: Challenges to Russia and Central Asia

The U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan leaves the country in a state of growing turmoil. Russia will need to do all it can to prevent extremist...
Ilya Klishin

The Magic Mirror of Russian Public Opinion

Today’s Russia lacks many of the tools characteristics of societies where citizens live in a shared reality.
Michele A. Berdy

Getting Married and/or Rejected in Russian

Marriage can be confusing, but wait until you hear about Russian marital confusion!
Andrei Kolesnikov

How One University Rector Forever Changed Russian Education

Kuzminov allowed maximal academic freedom, but it was this that tore apart his power and he was forced into compromises and obedience.
Kirill Martynov

How Vladimir Putin Runs Russia Without Intermediaries or Institutes

Russia is ready to become the first country in the world where public politics and governance are carried out via daytime TV. 
Mark Galeotti

New National Security Strategy Is a Paranoid’s Charter

Russia's new National Strategy regards not just foreign countries as a threat, but the very processes reshaping the modern world.
Michele A. Berdy

Clean Up Your Act the Russian Way

How to wash that bum right out of your hair and other tricks of the Russian launderer's trade.
Ilya Shepelin

Putin: The Man With All the Answers

Putin's annual call-in show is meant to show everyday Russians that there is no problem in the country that escapes his all-encompassing vision.
Judy Twigg

Is Russia's Vaccine Diplomacy Going South?

What will the damage be to Russia’s credibility and moral authority if it can’t or won’t make good on its initial pledge to deliver “the vaccine...
Andrei Soldatov

Russia’s Endless Registers Are a Back Door to Preliminary Censorship

Listing everything means new things cannot pop up and become available spontaneously.
Dmitry Trenin

Sailing Into Troubled Waters. Russia Counters Britain in the Black Sea

No one in Moscow expects the West to accept Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea in the foreseeable future. However, dismissing the reality carries a price...
Michele A. Berdy

How to Survive a Russian Heat Wave

Don't drink hot coffee. Don't work (brain fog). Wear nighties to the store. And moan about the heat.
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