Talks between Russia and Georgia on the former’s joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) have got underway in Bern, Switzerland, where Georgia's stance is a roadblock to Russia’s being able to clear the final hurdle. The desired goal...

It was announced on 10 March that Alexei Vorobyov, Ingushetia’s Prime Minister, resigned. The official reason for this is his transfer to a new position. It is also possible, however, that the prime minister had been asked to step down:...

In the foreseeable future, we shouldn’t be ashamed of our political system. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Our electoral legislation started to take shape in 1993 when the Russian Constitution was being written, giving more authority to...

Yunus-bek Yevkurov, President of Ingushetia, is undoubtedly one of the most frank high-ranking leaders in the North Caucasus region. He is willing to talk even to people that have criticised him. Yet I was surprised when I received a phone...

Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, comprised of an incongruous mixture of the military, militias and professional mercenaries who are veterans of massacres in Chad and Darfur, have launched an offensive. Foreign correspondents say that they are...

The preceding articles in this column evoke poignant thoughts. The saddest part about them is that they resonate with my own thoughts. It’s not just the articles. Any unbiased person who is paying the slightest bit of attention to life in...

Official mass media reported three groups of Wahhabist militants attacked the city in a manner comparable to what happened with the insurgency on 13 October 2005. Unofficial reports indicate the city might have been attacked by...

Paradoxical as it might seem, the Russian leaders that succeeded him will help us answer that question. The celebrations commemorating Yeltsin’s 80th anniversary, held as an event of national significance and attended by the ruling tandem,...

Putin’s power is “relative” Navalny: ... There’s one question that comes to mind: these people who are stealing from Russia and taking everything out of the country, they’re what, working for Russia? Incidentally, in your not-so-distant...

Published in Novaya Gazeta, Feb. 18, 2011 Chairman of the GovernmentRussian Federation V. V. Putin Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! In our recent history there was a story, when a “man who looked like General Prosecutor” Skuratov, tried to...

The road to Prielbrusye starts at the Baksan ring. Here, on the Caucasus Federal Highway, there is a neat, yellow highway police post. From here the federal highway from Prokhladny to Azau branches off; dodging back and forth along the...

Normally Nemtsov lead a healthy lifestyle: windsurfing, ice-hole diving, fitness training – and suddenly I saw him drinking vodka. (The fact that I was also drinking it at that moment didn't surprise me, what else can you expect of me!) I...

Take reform in the army, for example. The present Minister of Defence, Anatoly Serdyukov, is a reasonably able administrator, and in any other country he would have long since been able to finish the reforms. But in order to carry out...

"May you and your descendents be damned!" Marina Filippovna Khodorkovskaya pronounced these words in the Khamovniki court on 30 December of last year. She threw out these words after the Judge Viktor Danilkin, who rendered the final...

During a debate held on Yuri Pronko’s programme Sukhoi Ostatok (Final Analysis) on finam.fm radio station, Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Economic Policy and Entrepreneurship, Yevgeny Fedorov, appeared troubled by some mysterious...