Yeltsin

Navalny's attack on the Russian liberals who under and with Yeltsin paved the way for Putinism was met with scepticism, sometimes derision. Some doubt if his articles are written by the prisoner himself. At the request of Raam op Rusland economist Vladislav Inozemtsev wrote the serious reply Navalny is entitled to.

Alexey Navalny has released his first extended essay from prison, expressing a deep disappointment with the past two decades of democratic politics in Russia. It is a scathing attack on the Russian liberals of the Yeltsin era, who in his eyes paved the way for Putin's dictatorship and the war in Ukraine.

Sergei Kovalyov, one of the most prominent and eloquent Soviet and Russian human rights activists, died in his sleep in Moscow on August 9. He was 91. Kovalyov joined the human rights movement in 1968 and remained a vocal defender of democracy and human rights until he died. Robert Coalson, correspondent for Radio Liberty, calls him Sakharov's heir.

It is an eternal discussion in East and West. Did the euforic West let down Russia after the collapse of communism? The economic collapse of the 1990s quickly alienated the people from a choice for a western partnership. Public opinion returned to nostalgia of the past and political elites cynically used this to keep their power. And now conveniently blame the West.