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...

The situation in eastern Ukraine and Russian-Ukrainian interstate relations saw a certain de-escalation in June 2014. In particular, Russia recognized new Ukrainian President P. Poroshenko. However, the situation remains to be tense. The east Ukrainian armed groups cannot see how they may exist...

Tensions in the eastern Ukraine were eased a bit in May 2014, although the causes of the conflict still remain to be resolved. There is a fragile balance today between the Ukrainian military forces and the armed groups of supporters of federalism in Donetsk and Lugansk regions. In the...

The situation in Ukraine ratcheted up sharply in April 2014 in the Dontesk and Lugansk Regions, where armed insurgents seized the regional administration buildings. Negotiations in Geneva between officials from Russia, Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union came to an agreement on...

In December, the Russian authorities made several symbolic gestures designed to sway public opinion both at home and abroad in favor of their policies. Thus, they pardoned Michail Khodorkovsky, Russia's number one political prisoner, and declared a large-scale amnesty marking the 20th...

In February 2016, the RF Government actively discussed its anti-crisis plan and reached a consensus to the effect that the automotive and housing construction industries, as well as non-raw material exports and agriculture, should be subsidized from the budget. At the same time, the Government...

In April 2013, rumors of the RF Government's impending sacking suddenly became much more than simply rumors after Vladimir Putin had announced that this option was now on the table. He made that statement at a government meeting at Elista, and the corresponding footage of the event was then...

In August 2015, oil prices continued to slide, and the RF Ministry of Economic Development cut Russia's economic outlook for 2015. JSC Russian Railways head Vladimir Yakunin handed in his resignation; best seen in conjunction with recent developments in Russia's big state-owned companies, this...

In July 2015, the SCO and BRICS held their simultaneous summits in Ufa. The main result of those summits was the conclusion of agreements on the creation of the BRICS contingent reserve and the establishment of the New Development Bank. Another major event of July was the so-called Iran Nuclear...