On 19 April, dozens of nomad wagons and hundreds of riders and shepherds were still arriving in Sükhbaatar Square, Ulan Bator, the centre of Mongolian officialdom. They were coming from the surrounding regions of Arkhangai,...

The president and the prime minister, who were seen being very chummy during the Easter holiday, each nevertheless continue to try to have it their own way while attempting to fit the cliché that the differences between them are...

During his triumphant visit to Tehran in 2010, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with his every step being televised, was Iranian national television's main attraction. Fast-forward to today and the Iranian authorities have banned any...

High ranking government officials and state corporation executives are simply too important to travel following the rules created for mere mortals. On earth they have their cars with flashers, and at sea they have their yachts. What about...

Appearing before the State Duma with “the Report on the Activities of the Russian Government in 2010” (as it is officially called), Vladimir Putin faced a difficult task. If, of course, he had stuck to the official purpose of the event. It...

We continue looking into the business interests of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and their links with those who were under the surveillance of European law enforcers and special services. In our previous issues (No. 38 and...

Has the U.S. set the goal of overthrowing Gaddafi? What is happening with the Libyan leader’s U.S. bank accounts? Will there be a change in the U.S. policy towards friendly authoritarian regimes? When can we expect visa-free travel between...

The great Marxist Antonio Gramsci defined a crisis thus: “The past is dying but the future has not yet taken shape”. Not only Russia finds itself in such a state. Western society has been hit by crisis too. Yet, while in the former case,...

Some interesting pot-stirring is taking place in Ingushetia. The Republic has a new Supreme Court Chairman, Ibragim Fargiyev. A military lawyer, scholar and teacher, he is said to have been one of Moscow’s candidates for Ingush President...

The president’s authorised representative to the State Duma, Alexander Kosopkin, who died in a helicopter crash on 9 January 2009, truly did take full part in the killing of wild rams. The announcement was finally made by a representative...

The idea to interview the former Mayor of Moscow was born immediately after Mr Luzhkov became dean of one of the faculties at the International University in Moscow where we are studying. Not many believed we would be able to pull it off,...

Dmitry Medvedev, while maintaining sound personal relations with Vladimir Putin, is choosing his own political path and planning to run for president. Stylistic differences, as evidenced by the experiences of the author of this term,...

Many have acknowledged the critical state Russia has found itself in (my previous article for Novaya Gazeta was precisely about this). The general consensus, however, is shown in the most curious of ways in products appearing only recently...

The Major Cases Investigation Department of the Russian Investigation Committee has inquired with Omsk banks and branches about the accounts, deposits and loans of several officials, including Omsk regional healthcare minister Yuri...

Platon Lebedev discovered considerable discrepancies between the audio recordings from court hearings at the second YUKOS trial and the minutes from the same hearings that Khamovniki district court, which sentenced him and Mikhail...