The American bombardment of Russian mercenaries in Syria has made it clear that the Russian intervention in Syria is not over,

Higher oil prices, state investment and Central Bank interventions have maintained a relative stability in the Russian economy

The enlargement of NATO to Central and Eastern Europe is a controversial issue. What was the meaning of the suggestion of American

(English translation of Kessler's start of the debate)

For more than a quarter of a century Joseph Stalin ruled over Soviet

The Council of Europe is on its way to restore the voting rights of the Russian delegation in the Parliamentary Assemblee

The chaotic scenes in Kyiv as supporters freed Mikhail Saakashvili after the police arrested him, seemed to suggest that the

US Congress is almost certain to approve a bill to send lethal weapons to Ukraine to help it quell the unrest in the Donbass

Yandex is Russia’s most famous IT company and search-engine. The company was often far ahead with innovations, rivalling Google. In

The possibility that Russia will withdraw from the Council of Europe is increasing every day. The secretary-general of the Council,

The incoherence in US-Russian relations has many causes, from mutual misunderstanding to Trump’s own spur-of-the-moment style. But a

The decision by Turkey to buy a Russian missile defense system, has caused concern in NATO. Is Turkey drifting away from the West

In september Alexander Kalinin, the leader of the fundamentalist Russian-orthodox organisation 'Christian State - Holy Russia' was

Russia’s survival logic is based on duality: being both with the West and against it. Western misperceptions of this duality

There is a peculiarity that is pervasive in Russian society: social appeals to a repressive government to uphold one’s

This autumn marks the start of an insecure election year in Russia. On 18 march 2018 Putin will most likely be re-elected for

Putin's creation of a National Guard, in 2016, is the most striking reform of law-enforcement agencies of the last decade. In case of unrest the

The big Russian-Belarusian military exercise Zapad-2017 is in full swing. Speculations as to what Russia is up to abound. The

With an exposé on Putin's corruption Alexei Navalny targets the Man at the Top directly. Navalny is not in jail and Putin is

With the end of the Cold War the geo-strategic reality in Europe changed. The Charter of Paris, signed in 1990, confirmed the right

The old clans are re-asserting their power in Ukraine again, while staying on a European course. In Ukraine pro-European political

With one of Putin’s closest henchmen as commander and 400,000 armed men on its payroll, the National Guard, created in 2016, is a

Ukrainian president Poroshenko's time runs out. Voters have grown impatient with pervasive corruption and the suffocating

The new internet law signed by Putin will force providers to enforce the state's blacklisting of internet sites. The ban on VPN's

As the Siemens scandal has shown, relations between Russia and Germany deteriorate quickly. This ends a period of fruitful

At the third anniversary of the downing of MH17 Alexander Zakharchenko rebaptised his People's Republic Donetsk in

As Trump and Putin met for the first time during the G20, they apparently didn't speak about a very sensitive issue: the economic

Russia now is considered as one of the main actors in cyberwar. But using 'patriotic hackers' can backfire in your own

Alexey Navalny should challenge the Kremlin in a more serious way then organising street protests. It leads nowhere and may end

This year’s tv call-in show with Vladimir Putin revealed that politics has been entirely removed from the public sphere in Russia.

Putin’s administration, in its quest for historical legitimacy, seeks to synthesize disparate elements of Russia’s different ‘pasts’

Volgens de FSB hebben de terroristen, die begin april 2017 een aanslag pleegden in de metro van Sint Petersburg, hun actie

On June 12 Alexei Navalny again succeeded in bringing people to the streets in Russia. But street protest is no political

Russia is a country with a suspended and unresolved historical memory. Therefore, life is now becoming more ideological, while ideology is

With a concert on Maydan Square Ukrainians celebrated that since June 11 they can travel to European countries without a visa. 'Farewell,

The allegations against Russia interfering in the American elections are still murky. After the elections contacts between Russian

Is Russia a superpower or a house of cards? This was the subject of a debate organised by RaamopRusland in De Balie in Amsterdam.

Belarus limits the international safety inspections and doesn't provide full information during the construction of the

Late Putinism is not working with a long-sighted grand design, as people who believe the Trump-dossier seem to think. Relentless hollowing out of

Since the anti-corruption protests of 26 March staff and teachers at some Russian schools and universities have held warning

In his article 'Navalny een

Fashioning of a good future out of a bad past through constructing a ‘usable past’ for the national narrative is not unique to Russia. But in

The persecution of gay people in Chechnya may point to a profound weakness in the Kremlin’s power in the republic. President Putin apparently has

After Donald Trump took power a ‘reset’ of U.S.-Russian relations wasn’t even attempted. Why was a ‘grand bargain’, being so far

A mere two and a half months after his inauguration Donald Trump acknowledged that ‘we’re not getting along with Russia at all, we

Who writes Russian history nowadays: the state or the citizens? Since the protests of 2011-2012, the state is controlling the

Last Monday, April 3, Lukashenko and Putin met in Saint Petersburg to overcome their controversies. After the meeting they announced

De Russische revolutie van 1917 was een keerpunt: voor Rusland zelf, en voor de rest van de wereld. Al honderd jaar zijn oorzaken en

Unlike in the rest of Europe, the Russian middle class is not a motor of change, according to Russian social researchers. It has no

Gazprom seems ready to make concessions to the European Union in a deal about liberalization of gas markets in Central and Eastern Europe. But it

Many statements of Donald Trump may be contradictory, his plan to 'rebuild the US military into the strongest on earth' has been

The recent decision of an Austrian court to allow the extradition of Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash to the United States is a remarkable turn

Three years ago the Maidan demonstrations ended in blood and with the flight of president Yanukovich to Russia. Young Ukrainians,

The belief that it was the Kremlin’s dream to see Trump in the White House is an exaggeration. The Trump/Bannon/Leninist urge to destroy the

In March the French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen (FN) visited the Duma in Moscow, looking for financial support for her

Politics is politics, but money is money. Three years after the adoption of the EU Energy Security Strategy in Brussels not much has changed.

When Crimea was annexed in 2014, the Kremlin temporarily allowed patriotic activism to rally support. The authorities soon saw the

The Energy Union of the EU, launched two years ago, emphasised the need to diversify energy sources, suppliers and routes. However, the Nord

Since the Russian interference in Ukraine the three Baltic countries started worrying about their security situation. They

Populists use macho talk to show their disrespect to the elites and their closeness to the lower strata. Putin and Trump, though very different

For Ukraine and Russia last year proved out to be a year of relative stability, both in political and economical terms.  But

In december Dmitri Trenin, director of Carnegie Moscow Center, published the book 'Should we fear Russia?' He warns the West

There are factual mistakes in the Trump blackmail dossier that was put together by a British spy, says Andrei

In the fierce information battle on Donald Trump a 35 page highly secret document by an unknown British intelligence officer was

Aleppo. Pictures

On December 29 president Obama kicked out 35 Russian diplomats in response to Russian interference with the American

Torture is common practice in the penal colonies of nowadays Gulag. Activist Ildar Dadin, emprisoned in Karelia, sent out an open letter. After

President Obama struck back at Russia on December 29 for its alleged cyber-attacks, designed to influence the 2016 election. After

The West is inclined to interpret and explain national politics by referring to Russia or Putin. However, the recent electoral

Did President Putin let the genie out of the bottle when he placed Russia’s elite under surveillance? The arrest of the Russian

Before the elections the Russian leadership was praising Donald Trump. After his victory the Kremlin should worry about mercurial

Is Russia really readying itself for war? Certainly the drum-beat of alarmist propaganda on TV would seem to be conditioning the

The message that Donald Trump’s sudden triumph sends is very clear: the U.S. political system has failed at its core. The bulwark of liberal

Perhaps we should have been warned by the American predilection for zombie apocalypse dramas, that it was a precautionary signal

Western scolars criticize Ukraine for its selective national memory policies. Moscow demonizes Ukrainian national liberation

Ultraconservatism is the new Russian Zeitgeist. The country’s leadership has embraced it. Its influence on Russian media is obvious,

Uzbekistan’s leaders justify their crackdown on domestic opposition pointing to the threat of islamist movements. These

The picture of Putin's Russia that we are offered by Dutch media has fundamental gaps. Alongside the frauds and repression there are

We are the most educated and globally competitive young generation that Eastern Europe has ever seen, writes Ukrainian journalist

The Duma is a rubber stamp parliament and the elections of September 18 are rigged. Still there is one thing the Kremlin is worried about: what

by Yekaterina Schulmann

There are two widespread misconceptions about protest activity in Russia. The first is that, for

For the Kremlin’s international channel RT there is no such thing as objective reporting, making a lie as worthy of broadcast as a

After days of rumours president Karimov has been officially declared dead. The funeral is September 3. Who will succeed him?

Russia and Turkey have surprisingly quickly found each other again in their mutual aversion against the West, which in their opinion

Russia reacted unusually strong after a misty shoot-out near the border with Crimea, blamed on 'Ukrainian terrorists'. Putin in

The meeting between Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and his Turkish colleague Recep Tayyip Erdogan on August 10 did not turn into

5 augustus 2016

The failed military coup against president Erdogan will affect the foreign policy of Turkey. The military

Recent arrests and dismissals of governors, nominations of body guards of Putin to high professions, leaks of American emails seem to fit a

22 juli 2016

Why is Russia dismissing every criticism, like the WADA-report on doping, as Russophobia? The problem with

Dutch journalist Wierd Duk thinks the West bears great responsability for Russia's behaviour towards Ukraine. The Ukrainian writer

After the NATO summit in Warsaw, West and East should stop blaming each other and immediately start negotiations to eliminate the

In June Putin visited China to sign numerous gas and oil contracts. The results were so far limited.Russia strengthened its position

In spite of Putin's efforts, the Eurasian Economic Union is not exactly an attractive perspective. The countries that joined keep eying the

According to many experts in East and West, like Sergei Karaganov and Henry Kissinger, the European Union needlessly provoked Russia

Two years after Euromaidan 'Ukraine Fatigue' in the West is growing. Negative stories abound in the media: there is no end to

Former German MP Karsten Voigt (SPD) thinks the West should take a stronger line against Russia. But journalist Wierd

European countries allow Gazprom to 'divide and rule' the gas market with empty promises. They don't succeed in formulating a common

In Russia we witness a slow reevaluation of Stalin as victor of World War II. It is part of a rewriting of history. But the Stalin terror poses a

Russia and Europe are fighting an ideological battle. The postmodern, secular and powerless Europe is challenged by Russia, where

As membership of NATO is no option for Ukraine and Georgia, Eastern Europe should sign a security pact against Russian imperialism,

The Ukrainian publicist and poet Mykola Riabchuk answers the Russian philosopher Aleksandr Tsipko: is Russia able to modernize and

Truth is irrelevant in the information war of the Kremlin. That is the difference between Russian and Soviet propaganda, says

On 17 October Russia resumed its indiscriminate missile terror on Ukrainian cities. The attacks started a week ago, on 10 October,

There is intense public debate in the West about ending the war against Ukraine with peace negotiations or a truce.