In appointing Mikhail Degtyarev as the new governor of Khabarovsk, Putin is not promoting one of his own men, but making the LDPR of

After unseen police violence, anger in Belarus reached even some of the smallest towns across the country. In the weeks before the

Italian newspapers criticised Russia's humanitarian aid to Italy as a propaganda tool and espionage. But international aid always

In his address to the nation on April 2 Putin extended the economic lockdown with three more weeks and promised salary compensation

On October 16 Andrei Soldatov held the second October Lecture of RaamopRusland. Research

While Putin's ratings since the pension reforms have gone down substantially it is the army that fills the gap. That is

In one and a half year 55 activists in Ukraine were attacked by unknown assailants for their fight against corruption. Arrests were

In Moscow the new film 'The Story of an Appointment' by Avdotia Smirnova is the talk of the town. Opinions about the plot

In anger over the decision to grant the Ukrainian Orthodox Church independence from Moscow the Russian Orthodox Church broke off relations with

We can keep laughing at the Russian military intelligence service, says our columnist Mark Galeotti, but we should

The Lviv regional council on September 18 put a ban on Russian-language cultural products, that has drawn a lot of criticism in and

The results of recent regional elections were for United Russia the worst since elections for regional leaders were introduced in

Ruslan Boshirov, one of the suspects of the poison attack on Skripal, has been identified by research group Bellingcat as a

It seems medieval and extremely cruel to get rid of an adversary with poison. It has become almost a business card of the

Viktor Zolotov’s threat video message to Alexei Navalny underscores the increasing incoherence of the authorities’ strategy for

What is new about the big joint military drills of Russia and China in the Far East is not its scale, but the fact that for the

Public discontent over a plan to raise Russia’s pension age showed the weakness of Putin's rule. The governing elite is paralized

In recent months criminal cases have been opened in various parts of Russia against young people who are accused of extremism.

Patriotic history exhibits, unashamedly nationalist videos, pyrotechnic military Olympics: the Kremlin is turning to Russian

The lawyer who published the gruesome torture video in a penal colony in Yaroslavl had to flee Russia. But this case is not an

For decades Russia and the West are looking for a ‘reset’ of their relations. To no avail. Who’s to blame? That’s the wrong

The government’s pension reform plan has shocked the majority of Russians.  In focus group discussions they expressed

The Helsinki summit quickly lost its significance. Trump was confronted with domestic pressure and reversed his statements.

The death of four foreign cyclists on July 29 in Tajikistan – a country and region generally safe and hospitable for tourists

The Russian GRU is back in charge. Be it in the Mueller indictment, the annexation of Crimea, the Skripal case, the downing of MH17,

Dmitri Trenin, the head of the Carnegie think tank in Moscow, recently spoke in The Hague about the tensions surrounding Russia.

With roughly 21 percent ethnic Russians, Kazakhstan inhabits the largest Russian minority of the five Central Asian republics. But

In a

Will the World Cup see Putin in the net?

The relations between Ukraine's two biggest Orthodox churches, the church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP) and the church of the Kyiv

Do we witness a ‘reset’ in German-Russian relations? On Iran and Nord Stream 2 a rapprochement between Putin and Merkel is possible, writes

Grozny is not a venue during the FIFA World Cup. But the capital of Chechnya will host the soccer-team of Egypt. That is not a

On May 18 Dmitri Trenin, director of think tank Carnegie Moscow, presented his views on the tensions between Russia

Russia has been in the spotlight, as the escalation between Israel and Iran on Syrian soil risks dragging Moscow into a new

The United States’ latest round of sanctions has hit Russia hard. In the future, the Russian state will have to share the emerging

Many years Dutch businessman Jeroen Ketting had been looking for a Russian business partner, with whom he could further develop his

Russia's president Putin was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate Nikol Pashinian after becoming Armenia's prime

The survival of the Assad regime lies entirely in the hands of its two main supporters: Russia and Iran. Therefore Netanyahu was in

More than 75 years after the Battle of Stalingrad the people of the city are still struggling with the past, writes

The ban on the messaging app Telegram demonstrates once again that Russia's regime is committed to subordinating business interests

The Armenian prime minister Serzh Sargsyan has resigned after mass protests in the streets of Yerevan. In contrast to the

Many more Russian oligarchs, bureaucrats, companies, and businesses can expect to appear on future U.S. sanctions lists. Russia, not

In Georgia, the majority of the population is still in favour of NATO membership. At the same time, the government tries to appease

During the Khrushchev-era, domestic cooking was not merely a mundane aspect of Soviet everyday life. In fact, the regime perceived

The nerve agent attack on British soil is a classical who-dunnit from a Cold War spy novel. More interesting than the murky details is the

President Vladimir Putin’s recent address to the Federal Assembly about boosting Russia’s defense capabilities made quite a

Ukraine and Russia are more than just neighbours. The history of these two countries, for instance, are closely connected. But since 2013-2014,

The controversy that broke out in February 2018 over what Russian president Vladimir Putin did or did not say in a meeting in 2006

The American bombardment of Russian mercenaries in Syria has made it clear that the Russian intervention in Syria is not over,

Higher oil prices, state investment and Central Bank interventions have maintained a relative stability in the Russian economy