Mikhail Sokolov is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Russian Service.
The death of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has once again exposed profound divisions among Russians. While many revile him for purportedly destroying a global superpower, others expressed deep gratitude for the unprecedented individual opportunities his liberalizations afforded them.
President Vladimir Putin is in a giving mood ahead of Russia's upcoming legislative elections, leading critics to say he is bribing vulnerable voters to boost the pro-Kremlin ruling party.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a state commission on historical education, to be headed by controversial former Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky. Many historians fear the new body marks a shortsighted intrusion of ideology into the study of history.
Despite nearly two weeks of protests, observers say the unrest in Khabarovsk is being underpinned by specific circumstances that aren't in play elsewhere.
RFE/RL’s Russian Service spoke with Russian political analysts to get a sense of how the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president might change relations between Washington and Moscow.
Kremlin foe Garry Kasparov says President Vladimir Putin is resorting to "external aggression" and increased confrontation with the West to bolster his image as Russia's leader and maintain a "dictatorship" in the country.
Slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was looking ahead to a planned March 1 opposition rally, though in an interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service earlier this month, he portrayed the demonstration as just a first step in a long struggle.
Despite Western outrage over Russia's actions in Ukraine, the conflict has boosted President Vladimir Putin's ratings in his own country.
Having created a "management vertical" and having destroyed all vestiges of federalism and the first sprouts of local self-government, the Kremlin nonetheless must hang on to the old banner of the Russian "Federation."
It is worth noting that you can count on your fingers the number of people voting against any of the current slew of reforms, at either the regional or national level. In fact, across all of Russia, you'd be hard-pressed to come up with even 100 such naysayers, and most of them are Communists.
Just as billionaire Aleksandr Lebedev and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced plans to create a new democratic party, the Kremlin employed its tactic of "razvodka" -- luring dissenters with promises of a thaw and throwing the opposition into confusion.
