It is not easy to diagnose the current situation. Can we now say that a political crisis has been triggered by the appearance of the people known on the web as i-Decembrists? No, because the question of power is not at stake yet. Is it a social crisis? No. In effect what we are witnessing is a crisis of expectations. In terms of the new political economy, it is a crisis of the social contract...

The clear lack of desire to find at least some words of sympathy for an entire nation mourning over Havel's death is a perfect example of the moral impurity of the group of people who for some reason decided that they are the state. The horror of it all, however, is that it's as if they are maintaining their silence on behalf of us as well. Now, what's left for us is to remember, speak and act. Renaming Bolotnaya Square in honour of Václav Havel could be the first step down this road...

Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Elena Kostyuchenko reports from the rebellious Kazakh prairie: Zhanaozen, or just Uzen, is a city home to 100 thousand people in the Mangystau Province of Western Kazakhstan. The province is believed to be the most expensive and unhealthy to live in throughout all of Kazakhstan, while Zhanaozen is considered to be the most expensive and unhealthy city in the province...

In the Vologda Region, United Russia received 33% of the vote, and that’s keeping in mind that it’s a stable, conservative and quiet place. This number didn’t surprise me one bit, since I already had a good understanding of how people from my hometown were feeling. After meeting with Surkov the other day, Vologda Governor Pozgalyov told it like it is: “What do you want? We had fair elections...”

The drug police send grocers to a high-security prison for 13, 10 and five and a half years... several episodes of direct “sales” were registered in the case: when drug addicts supposedly bought poppy seeds from the tent to use as drugs; however, later during the trial, none of the “drug addicts” were presented.

When those low-down police took Semeiko, Aleksandr couldn’t take it anymore. He recalls, “I ran down the hall of the dormitory and knocked on all the doors: “Hey, everyone, get up”. All this injustice made me so livid that I decided that we are to barricade the entrance ways to the dormitory, declare a hunger strike and hold a siege until the city prosecutor arrives. Or until they kick out that local policeman…”

Narcissus and Christopher is a play about “a different person”, as they are called here. “Special people” also act in the production: they are diagnosed with “autism”, “Down syndrome”, mental illnesses and mental retardation. The studio they work in integrates both actors with and without these diagnoses...

Meeting a collection of Russian dissidents in Union Square in Manhattan on a crisp October day, who speak openly and honestly about their home country, certainly can get adrenaline pumping. Billed as a protest against the rise of Vladimir Putin’s attempts to reassume duties as Russian president, these protesters in New York were strident in their views and clever in their derision of Russia’s oligarchic personalities...

The latest news proves that something is up with the Pacific Fleet’s fire-extinguishing mixture, even after the Nerpa tragedy. A criminal case has just been sent to court against the head of the Pacific Fleet’s chemical laboratory for technical management, charged with trying to receive a bribe for committing knowingly illegal actions...

An Internet poll gave him a resounding victory in the Greenpeace-organised Enemy of Baikal competition; the Golden Tick award went to the prime minister for winning the competition. To mark Putin’s triumph, scuba divers planted a commemorative sign on the bottom of Lake Baikal right next to the Baikal Pulp and Paper Plant’s (BPPP) waste-discharge pipe. Greenpeace says that the banner, listing off the competition’s three finalists, was put up “with the hope that the prime minister, having himself already dove to the bottom of Baikal, would halt the plant’s operations and dive down to remove the banner”...

...stumbled upon by an Avtorevue magazine expedition to the Altai area

"A lad in a private security guard uniform was standing in front of a steel cable slung across the road.

What do you mean? There is the road. Beyond the steel cable was a strip of excellent asphalt with freshly painted markings; a villa could be glimpsed in the middle of the valley and, a little closer, a helicopter pad, outbuildings and railway flats for builders. No walls or fences, no signs forbidding entry. We can’t drive? OK, we’ll walk. The guard became fidgety: you can’t walk either, this is private property..."

A massive scandal has broken out in Moscow. Several days before the start of the new school year, directors of dozens of Moscow schools (we have confirmed information about forty) received an odd directive: sack all their catering personnel and dismantle all the equipment. The reason was that the tender to provide school meals had been won by a company called Сonсord, but its triumph turned out to be a failure...

The Filippov family alone has contributed sixty-one years to defending their country. The father, Alexander Filippov, fought in the Second World War from 1938 to 1945. Antonina, the mother, defended Moscow’s skies for three years. Yuri,...

Some of the German photos are in colour, while almost none of ours are. But the point is not the technical differences, it’s something else. The Germans posed for pictures more during the war than our soldiers. There are photos of...

You have remained far away from Russia for all these years, yet your voice is still heard. You left because you found it difficult to live there. In your opinion, what has changed in Russia over these years? I would like to make a few...