The first round election debate between the candidates for mayor of Moscow was aired on “Moscow 24” channel. The debate was stormy at times, but the candidates kept playing their usual roles. Alexei Navalny (RPR-PARNAS) spoke about corruption and migration, and Sergei Mitrokhin (“Yabloko”) promised to liberate Moscow of a team of “newcomers,” i.e. out-of-town officials […]
Alexei Navalny, candidate for Moscow’s mayor, writes about the daughter of the current mayor and the extravagant lifestyle of the Sobyanins. – Ed. Oh, Sergei Semyonovich [Sobyanin], so it’s that eternal lying of the “civil servants” – it’s like a quagmire. Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has stated that the apartment in the center of Moscow was […]
Yesterday, the evening news on all the federal TV channels came out with a message about the development of the transport infrastructure of Moscow and the Moscow region. President Vladimir Putin visited the construction site of the Northern Bypass road in Odintsovo, linking Moscow Beltway and Minsk highway. The head of state was accompanied by […]
On June 4 2012, Russian reporter Sergei Sokolov was part of a press delegation accompanying the three-year-old Investigative Committee, often described as Russia’s FBI, on a trip to Kabardino-Balkaria, a republic in the Caucasus. Sokolov’s publication, Novaya Gazeta, is one of the few independent newspapers left in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, a fact ominously borne out […]
Last Wednesday, we went to bed with the knowledge that opposition figure Alexei Navalny could be headed to prison while we slept. This thought did not escape Navalny, either. The investigative-blogger-turned-Moscow-mayoral candidate did what he did best in the final days before his sentence. His last blog post, translated by The Interpreter, was a heartfelt call to action, […]
The sentencing of Alexey Navalny and Petr Ofitserov on July 18 had two immediate and simultaneous effects: in Moscow, a protest of several thousand swarmed a major intersection near the Kremlin, and in Kirov, prosecutors abruptly appealed the defendants’ arrest pending their appeal. Could it be that the prosecutors had responded to the demands of […]
Aleksandr Morozov is a political analyst, editor-in-chief of Russkiy Zhurnal, and director of the Center for Media Research of the Institute for History of Cultures who blogs at Live Journal. – Ed. How can the strange story of the jailing and release of Navalny be explained? And what was the logic of the events, if […]
On the night of 21-22 July a serious discussion burst into flames on Twitter. Like any “world in flames,” it all began with a little step. I re-tweeted the following tweet by Dima Zykov: “Political prisoner Navalny must be supported; candidate Navalny – never.” The reaction to my re-tweet was instant. Immediately, people decided that […]
Mikhail Abyzov, the Minister for Open Government, proposed to stop the practice of procurement of cars for government officials. Earlier, representatives of the “All-Russia People’s Front” (ONF) introduced a bill limiting the value of official vehicles to 3 million roubles. The Minister said that “it is necessary to abandon the practice of acquisition of vehicles […]
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is free only one day after having been sentenced to five years in prison. Yesterday, the prosecution in Kirov, that had asked for a 6 year sentence, appealed the actual arrest of Navalny on what seemed like a legal technicality. At a hearing today, the prosecution argued that keeping Navalny […]
