Jonas Bernstein

Following on the heels of two of Russia’s top economic officials, the country’s top two leaders (readers can decide for themselves which is No. 1) have made statements aimed at

In interviews over the weekend, top Russian economic officials sought to downplay fears that the global financial crisis would lead to a devaluation of the ruble and other dire consequences

The world financial crisis, which has hit Russia’s stock market harder than those of most other countries, is starting to trickle down to the average Russian. As Nezavisimaya gazeta reported

With Russia’s sole major center-right liberal party, the Union of Right Forces (SPS), having announced that it will disband and merge with two pro-Kremlin parties, the man whose imprisonment has

Transparency International has assessed corruption in Russia as being at its highest level in eight years. The Berlin-based international watchdog group ranked Russia in 147th place out of 180 countries

A poll conducted earlier this year found that the country’s professional classes are less than fully supportive of its current ruling political-economic system and want the system democratized and opened

With the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsing and the U.S. government bailing out insurance giant AIG, Russia’s stock markets continued their steep fall on September 17 after recording record

Leading members of Russia’s marginalized liberal opposition have issued a statement criticizing the Russian government’s recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The statement, which was

With President Dmitry Medvedev having ordered a halt to Russia’s military assault on Georgia and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili agreeing to the general principles of a cease-fire plan negotiated by

Not surprisingly, criticism in the Russian media of Russia’s military actions in South Ossetia and the rest of Georgia, to the degree that there has been any criticism at all,

Russians have been reacting to the death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and paying tribute to the Nobel Prize winning writer and dissident, who died on August 3 at the age of

Russia’s political class is continuing to debate the issue of corruption, with some observers again expressing doubts that President Dmitry Medvedev’s anti-corruption drive will succeed where past efforts failed (see

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week accused the Russian coal and steel producer Mechel of price-fixing and made a veiled threat against the company’s owner, Igor Zyuzin. Critics say Putin’s

On June 30, Anatoly Chubais stepped down as board chairman of the state electricity monopoly RAO UES, which was liquidated the following day as part of a reform of Russia’s

It is often said in Russia that dissatisfaction with the country’s existing political system is greater among those living in the cities than those living in the countryside. Yet according

While Russia’s economy and its citizens’ real incomes have grown significantly over the past eight years (at least in part thanks to soaring world energy prices), Nezavisimaya gazeta recently reported

President Dmitry Medvedev is reportedly planning to create a new post of presidential aide for the fight against corruption and may sign a presidential decree to that effect before the

In the most serious verbal challenge to the “vertical of power” that Vladimir Putin created after becoming head of the Russian state in 2000, and what may be a sign

Last month President Dmitry Medvedev created an Anti-Corruption Committee that he will head and gave it a month to come up with a national anti-corruption program (see EDM, May 21).

A survey conducted by Allianz SE, the giant financial service provider with headquarters in Munich, found Russians fairly confident about their country’s present and future as well as their current

Acting on his promises to battle corruption, instill respect for the law and overcome “legal nihilism,” President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree setting up a presidential anticorruption council and

While it is perhaps too early to assess definitively the meaning of the appointments to the Kremlin administration and the cabinet of ministers, one can put forward two provisional conclusions.

The key policy speech in Russia since Dmitry Medvedev’s inauguration as president on May 7 and his appointment of Vladimir Putin as his prime minister the following day was made

With Dmitry Medvedev having been sworn in as Russia’s new president and outgoing President Vladimir Putin poised to take up the role of prime minister and leader of the ruling

Gazeta reported on May 5 that it had learned the structure and personnel make-up of the cabinet that Vladimir Putin will head as prime minister starting on May 8, the

As two Russian newspapers, Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Moskovsky korrespondent, correctly predicted last month (see EDM, March 28), President Vladimir Putin agreed on April 15 to become chairman of the United

Former independent State Duma deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov was one of the last liberals to remain in the State Duma, but the fate of his career as a parliamentary deputy was

President-elect Dmitriy Medvedev continued to sound liberal themes last week, telling an a forum devoted to the Internet held in Gorky-10 outside Moscow on April 3 that the answer to

State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said on April 1 that the lower house of parliament will be ready to confirm President-elect Dmitriy Medvedev’s announced candidate for the post of prime

Two Russian newspapers, Nezavisimaya gazeta and Moskovsky korrespondent, reported today, March 28, that Vladimir Putin will be named head of United Russia at a party congress that will be held

Following last week’s raids on the Moscow offices of TNK-BP, the 50/50 joint venture between British Petroleum and three Russian oligarchs, the Federal Security Service (FSB) filed industrial espionage charges

During their visit to Moscow this week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates held meetings with President Vladimir Putin and president-elect Dmitry Medvedev. They

With Dmitry Medvedev set to be inaugurated as Russian president in May and to name his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, to serve as prime minister, speculation over the likely composition of

Vedomosti reported on March 4 that Russia’s president-elect, Dmitry Medvedev, held a victory gathering at his campaign headquarters on the evening of March 2 to which both journalists and “associates

In a 2004 letter from prison, Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky said that while Vladimir Putin “certainly is no liberal and no democrat,” he is nonetheless “more liberal and democratic than

“The desire of millions of our citizens for individual freedom and social justice is what defines the future of Russia’s political system,” President Vladimir Putin declared in his recent speech

In his February 8 speech to the State Council laying out Russia’s development strategy for the next 12 years, President Vladimir Putin contrasted his eight years in power favorably with,

The members of President Vladimir Putin’s administration who are also the heads of state corporations are running again for re-election to the boards of those companies, which will have the

On February 1 Moscow’s Simonovsky District Court ordered former Yukos executive Vasily Aleksanyan, who claims to have been denied treatment for AIDS while in prison, to remain jailed while being

Last week’s arrest in Moscow of Semyon Mogilevich was a surprise not because he was so elusive, but because he had apparently been living unmolested in the Russian capital for

With the Central Election Commission set to register First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as a presidential candidate, observers have again been speculating about the future relationship between Medvedev, President

Just before New Year’s, Stanislav Belkovsky, head of the National Strategy Institute, gave an interview in which he repeated for a third time his claim that Vladimir Putin is a

Vedomosti on November 12 quoted State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, head of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, as saying that President Vladimir Putin will be presented with his official Central

In early 1994, the Analytical Center of the administration of then-President Boris Yeltsin produced a shocking report stating that 70-90% of Russia’s private enterprises and commercial banks in major cities

Russian political analysts and other observers are watching the power struggle inside Russia’s security and law-enforcement establishment. The conflict broke out into the open in early October with the arrest

An officer with the Federal Narcotics Control Service (FSKN) and a former colleague of his were recently found dead in St. Petersburg, the apparent victims of poisoning. If deliberate poisoning