“We aren’t waiting for the fall of the regime,” said Lyubov Sobol. “We’re actively working toward it and want to get there as fast as possible.”
Khodorkovsky
Putin’s Moscow is Anxious, Gilded and Hollow
Moscow is always a surprising kind of place. I expected Putin’s us-against-them nationalism to be more strident than ever. But I find the city uncharacteristically subdued and anxious about the future.
Khodorkovsky and Me
It was a very strange feeling to find out that Mikhail Khodorkovsky had landed in Berlin. I’d moved to the German capital in part to kick the adrenaline addiction of reporting from Russia. I was tired of the news always coming to me.
On the Moscow Witch Trial
The judiciary is the Putin system’s last line of defense. The president stands fast behind the fairy tale of Russia’s impartial, independent courts. Mumbling judges, bumbling prosecutors and crumbling testimonies are the props for due process.
Putin’s China Visit Helps Russia Become Global Energy Supplier
Russia agreed to supply China with oil for 20 years in return for a $25 billion credit. The total value of oil deals signed with Chinese companies this year is about $100 billion.
Medvedev Urges New Generation to Help Remake Russia
“In place of an archaic society where the leader thinks and decides for all, we will become a society of smart, free and responsible people,” Dmitry Medvedev said in his annual state-of-the-nation speech.
The Beginning of the End
Don’t worry about Moscow’s protest movement. Worry about how Vladimir Putin plans to hang on for another six years without the support of the capital.
Putin vs. Putin
Vladimir Putin is campaigning in a large part against himself – with all the contradictions and pitfalls that entails.
The Putin Paradox
The Putin Paradox holds that the former KGB agent is the best leader Russia could hope for in the transition from communism to democracy.
Perestroika’s Children Come of Age
The iPhone, the ultimate consumer attribute of an open society, clashed with Vladimir Putin’s closed political system. It was the contradiction between free global citizen and disenfranchised Russian subject that drove young Muscovites to take to the street.
