The FPS is one of the chief instruments in isolating the countries top-ranking authorities. They have a special communications system, a garage of special cars with their masters’ pre-emptive right to the right of way and to blocking off traffic. They also have their own “secret” social services and real estate...

A fake issue of Novaya Gazeta made its way around Moscow on Friday. On the front page was a giant portrait of Vladimir Putin. The intrigue of anticipating a second term for President Dmitry Medvedev also turned out to be feigned: everything proceeded according to a scenario that could be described as extremely banal, not to mention humiliating for the current head of state. Putin is running for president, and that’s not all – he has been nominated by Medvedev, who is running for prime minister, as he tentatively heads the pre-election list of United Russia...

Read Andrey Kolesnikov

By not allowing their projects to free themselves from the corridors of the presidential administration, housed in the same building that was once home to members of the Politburo and regional committee secretaries, the inspectors from the administration are not giving controlling politicians the chance to become elected politicians. An example is Pravoye delo party from Leonid Gozman’s times. But as soon as a politician like Prokhorov stops playing by their rules, builds up charisma that, theoretically, would allow him win elected office, he is liquidated...

Read Andrey Kolesnikov

The second term would definitely be Medvedev's last. He has nothing to lose. Maybe he will develop genuine modernisation, democratisation, and globalisation policies.

In fact, the opposite is true: we were waiting for the terrible end - the official accession of Putin but now we are faced with a never-ending horror. That is, the same inert arrangement with the nation's leader, who does everything himself, while the head of state permanently restrains his impulse for modernisation...

Read Andrey Kolesnikov

It may be a bad thing to quote oneself, but Putin’s creation of the Popular Front is nevertheless a unique occasion that makes it possible to excuse virtually anything. In January 2000, the Izvestiya newspaper retracted my column titled...

The results of President Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency will be summed up three years from the day of his inauguration, since the final year will be held amidst elections and isn’t very representative in this regard. Therefore, it makes...