Tag Archives: presad

Elections matter

In less than a month, Russia will hold elections to the State Duma. These will be the first legislative elections since the scandalous vote in 2011, and the first elections after Russia’s electoral reforms, with half the seats now filled … Continue reading

Posted in Elections, Kremlinology, Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Meet the new friends

(This note first appeared on 14 August 2016 on the Atlantic Sentinel) Sergei Ivanov’s dismissal as Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff last week is the most important change in the upper echelon of Russia’s political elite since Putin returned to … Continue reading

Posted in Kremlinology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The bonfire of rationality

Yesterday I was going to post a long and detailed entry about Vladimir Putin’s priority list. About the way priorities were exposed during times of crisis and scarcity. I was going to draw a comparison with my college days in … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Europe’s game – Part 2

In the previous entry, I argued that Europe had to push forward with sanctions on Russia, despite the imminent threat of a Russian economic crisis. However, Europe’s game does not end here. It has to carefully observe the movements within the … Continue reading

Posted in Kremlinology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A case against Medvedev

It started as yet another bill extending the powers of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. It continued with brilliant back-handers from Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. The Prime Minister dryly criticised Putin’s initiative, to which Putin replied with … Continue reading

Posted in Kremlinology | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An aging octopus

Right after the Moscow mayoral election, Vladimir Putin nominated his aide Tatiana Golikova to head the Court of Audit. The Russian and international press did not care much: after all, Navalny and Roizman occupied the headlines. A couple of weeks … Continue reading

Posted in Kremlinology, Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A tale of two politicians

Alexei Navalny was preparing to become the newest hero of the Russian opposition, an opposition that is now much wider, stronger, and more diverse and thus has much more opportunities than ten years ago, when Mikhail Khodorkovsky was convicted. When … Continue reading

Posted in Kremlinology, Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment