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January editorial. Vladimir Putin’s end-of-year press conferences are legendary for both their patience-testing duration and absence of noteworthy moments. This year, the Russian president, who [...]

Let us face it, for many of us 2020 has been a monster of a year, one that seemed devoid of much of the joy and light that makes life enjoyable; much like a member of Brezhnev’s politburo. [...]

One of my favourite things about the upcoming holidays is the amount of time I can spend on reading. Every year, I find at least one book under the Christmas tree and usually, I finish it before [...]

First and foremost, Anna Starobinets’s memoir Look at Him is a testament to the sorrow of losing an unborn child. As such, it’s intended to comfort women and families suffering through the same [...]

December editorial. When discussing Russian politics, it is usually only a matter of time before the conversation shifts to ‘propaganda’, ‘fake news’ and ‘disinformation’. From flat out denials [...]

December editorial. As 2020 comes to a close, Armenian military forces continue to withdraw from regions of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh—and Russian peacekeepers file in. [...]

Zooming in on the Baltic states, Aliide Naylor’s debut The Shadow in the East: Vladimir Putin and the New Baltic Front takes the reader on a journey through time and space. Fragmented memories of [...]

Conspiracy Culture: Post-Soviet Paranoia and the Russian Imagination by Keith Livers is part of a recent cast of plucky new texts that blur the boundaries between academia and popular culture [...]

On the southeastern outskirts of the hilltop city of Shusha, a narrow street lined with the forlorn ruins of old stone houses gives way to an open grassy field. Walking in the direction of a [...]

While reading the introduction to Alexander Griboedov’s Woe from Wit, I have come to the conclusion that if the term “woke” existed and could have been applicable to 18th century Russia, this [...]