This publication is aimed at studying the modification of institutions of regional state power in the Russian Federation and its influence on the investment climate in the regions, including regional peculiarities of the investment climate and predictability of the policy of regional authorities...

In March, Russia was faced with the unsavory prospect of a considerable loss of funds kept by Russian enterprises and individuals in Cyprus, traditionally one of the most attractive jurisdictions for Russian businesses A significant portion of those funds was frozen or seized by the Cypriot...

Ideology is pretty efficient machinery to decrease collective action's costs. People not need to communicate or even to be familiar one another to participate the joint action, to support the policy or resist the same. The chapter studies the impact which new ideologies of the 21st century...

February saw yet another flare-up in the ongoing turf war between economic clans, first of all between Ivan Sechin's and Arkady Dvorkovich's groups of influence. The latest flare-up was so strong that it even spilled over into Russia's state-owned TV channels. Thus, in one of its programs aired...

January 2013 saw yet another surge in protests in Russia – now caused by Vladimir Putin's approval, on New Year's eve, of the draft law banning U.S. citizens to adopt Russian orphans (it should be noted that Russia's authorities have so far failed to offer the orphans anything worth mentioning...

In December 2012, the so-called ‘Magnitsky Law' came into force in the United States. This law empowers and obliges the U.S. President to compose the list of persons responsible for the death of the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund's counselor Sergey Magnitsky and persons violating...

In November 2012, RF Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdiukov, accused of abetting corruption in his ministry, was sacked from office; former Deputy Minister of Regional Development was arrested; criminal proceedings against the managers of Rostelekom and the former top officials of the RF Ministry of...

The top news story of November was the indirect polemical dispute between Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, centered on the RF Investigative Committee's attempt to restore at least one of its previous established powers – the right of investigators to open tax fraud cases without a request...

In August, Victor Ishaev was dismissed from his post as Russia's Minister for the Development of the Far East – his extravagantly costly approaches to solving the region's problems without having made even a feeble attempt at setting any priorities, had finally infuriated both the RF...

In July 2013, Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was sentenced to five years in prison. It appears, however, that he would be allowed – on procedural grounds, since no appeal hearing has been held yet – to run for mayor in mayoral elections in Moscow on September 8, 2013. A...