Tag Archives: sechin

Unclear fission

The dismissal of Vladislav Surkov might just be the beginning of a serious rupture in the Russian political elite. Not that this is of any surprise. Surkov was a very important figure of the past fourteen years and he is … Continue reading

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Instead of a requiem*

Many articles, opinion pieces, alas, even political obituaries have been published in the past couple of days on Vladislav Surkov, the former ‘grey cardinal’ of Russian politics who was swiftly dismissed after a public spat with the Investigative Committee over … Continue reading

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The kompromat bubble

There is a very unique Russian word that has haunted Russian politics ever since the fall of the Soviet Union: kompromat, a Russian-style contraction of ‘compromising material’. Kompromats have a lively culture in Russia. Creating a good kompromat has become … Continue reading

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Immoral foundations

Somehow, the autumn has so far failed us, those who expected seismic changes to happen in Russian politics as a consequence of the local and regional elections and/or the debate on next year’s budget. What we have seen so far … Continue reading

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Time is politicking out

Richard Sakwa, one of my favourite Kremlin-watchers recently published a recap of the main events and processes of the past few months in Russia. Undoubtedly, the most important and strongest statement in the paper was that the politicisation of elite … Continue reading

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Rearranging that team photo

Russian media served a delicious treat to Kremlin-watchers last week. The Minchenko Consulting Group published a report on the “Politburo 2.0”, trying to decipher and to put into context the new setup of the “collective Putin” after the March presidential … Continue reading

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Pussy Riot as a symptom – Part 2

In the first part of this post I was trying to point out some of the more immediate political consequences of the Pussy Riot sentence. I joined the interesting discussion started on Mark Galeotti’s blog, In Moscow’s Shadows, an exchange … Continue reading

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