Russian democracy: Which way to go?

Simon Shuster – Chief of Moscow Bureau, Time Magazine Leonid Polyakov – Head of General Political Science Department, Higher School of Economics During the last 20 years Russia has been going through a democratic transition. Success has been made, but the way hasn’t been easy and there were wrong turns, too. As the presidential election gets closer, many speculate on how this process will...

Syrian crisis: Give peace a chance

Mouin Rabbani – Contributing Editor, Middle East Report The political crisis in Syria has got pretty dramatic. Inside the country, the media reports thousands dead in the year-long conflict. Outside, the temperature’s rising too, as the international community can’t find a compromise on how to help Damascus. After Russia and China vetoed the West-backed UN resolution, Russia’s foreign minister...

Street politics: who's the boss

­Vladimir Ryzhkov – Opposition Politician As the presidential election inches closer every day, Russia has seen its first major opposition rally of 2012. Tens of thousands marched through central Moscow chanting ‘give back our fair elections’ and ‘Putin must retire.’ But Putin’s supporters held a rally, too – protesting… against the protests. They warn of an unpredictable future if the...

Future Economic Challenges

­ Sean Ramsay – Journalist, New Media Intl Vladimir Semago – Politician Despite global turbulence, Russia has managed to keep its economy in line in recent years. But even the most efficient models become obsolete, and solutions to future challenges must be sought out. As such, Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin has published his vision of how Russia's economy should be...

Vote under webcam scrutiny

­ Igor Shchegolev – Communications Minister Russia's upcoming presidential election will be high-tech. In a bid to prevent vote fraud, some 200,000 webcams will be put in most polling stations across the country. A live video feed will be available on the Internet, making the election more transparent than ever. The first in history, the effort will cost about half-a-billion dollars – a price...

Pirate Party: Democracy for the 21st century?

­Aleksandr Shubin – Co-founder, Russian Pirate Party The Internet today is a place where almost any media is available for free. For content providers, this is a problem. It costs money to make movies, music and games, so they want protection for their investment. The conundrum is how this can be achieved without restricting freedom of information and ideas. How can a compromise be found – or is...

Costa Concordia disaster

­ Denis Golovanov and Olga Gridneva – Costa Concordia Survivors The catastrophe of the Costa Concordia, which was carrying over 4,000 people, has been dominating international media for more than two weeks. Some have compared it to the wreck of the Titanic that took place exactly one hundred years ago. Even now, search and rescue operations continue, as does the investigation into what really...

Ethnicity issue in presidential campaign

­ Tim Wall – Editor-In-Chief, The Moscow News Kirill Koktysh – Political Analyst Prime Minister Putin, who is running for president in March, has published a new article, seen as a part of his electoral manifesto. This time, he focuses mostly on ethnic diversity, immigration and nationalism. These are indeed very important issues in modern Russia, and they are among Putin’s biggest concerns….....

Steering through the economic storm

­Anders Aslund – Economic Advisor to Russian Government, 1991 – 1994 The World Economic Forum is kicking off in Davos. Over the next few days leading businessmen, economists and politicians will talk over the world economy’s most pressing issues. And there are issues a-plenty, given that nine eurozone countries had their credit rating cut earlier this month. So what should we expect to happen to...

An american at the Bolshoi

­The main stage of the famous Bolshoi Theater has opened again after a six-year-long renovation. And the theater’s company has changed, too. For the first time in the Bolshoi's two-century-long history, a foreigner has been hired as principal dancer. Critics say it's the beginning of a new era, others argue it's the end of the Russian ballet. So why did the Bolshoi's management take this...