All Articles - Institute of Modern Russia

Siege without a Victor: Seven Years after the Tragedy at Beslan

Details: Nation

Siege without a Victor: Seven Years after the Tragedy at Beslan

Details: 07 September 2011

On Sept. 1, 2004, a primary school in the North Ossetian locality of Beslan was taken by a terrorists group demanding that Russia stop the war in Chechnya and immediately withdraw its troops. After three days of siege, Russian forces took the school by storm. As a result, more than 300 people, most of them children, were killed. Today, seven years later, the Beslan siege is still remembered as one of the cruelest terrorist attacks leading to one of the most controversial government actions in modern Russian history.

Leon Aron: Great Revolutions Evolve in Cycles

Details: Politics

Leon Aron: Great Revolutions Evolve in Cycles

Details: 01 September 2011; Caterina Innocente

On the 20th anniversary of the August Coup in the USSR, Leon Aron, Director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, talked with Caterina Innocente about his vision of the political prospects for modern Russia.

A New Documentary about Anna Politkovskaya Premiered in NYC

Details: News

A New Documentary about Anna Politkovskaya Premiered in NYC

Details: 28 August 2011

During last week a new documentary by Marina Goldovskaya, an acclaimed Russian filmmaker, was screening at the International Film Center in New York City. It is called “A Bitter Taste of Freedom” and its main character is Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent Russian investigative journalist who was killed in Moscow in October 2006.

The Second Fork in the Road: The Fall of the Soviet Empire

Details: Nation

The Second Fork in the Road: The Fall of the Soviet Empire

Details: 27 August 2011

Only three generations after the first fork in the road in 1914-1917, Russia once again found itself at a crossroads. It was no wonder, however, that Russia, “having torn itself away from the European track,” would once again set itself against the world, as it did in the seventeenth century. But the “model of community living” proposed by the Bolsheviks (totalitarian ideology plus total control of the special services [editor’s note: secret police] plus the State Plan — that is, total state control of the economy) proved itself to be a dead end. By virtue of the richness of Russia’s natural and human resources, this model was able to be sustained for several decades, but it had no future.

The U.S. Government Puts Russian Officials On A Visa Blacklist

Details: World

The U.S. Government Puts Russian Officials On A Visa Blacklist

Details: 08 August 2011

On Friday, August 5, President Obama issued a proclamation that bans anyone who has engaged in human rights abuses abroad from entering the United States. It was another strong measure against the human rights abusers. The first one would be that only last week the U.S. Department of State blacklisted dozens of Russian officials to prevent them from visiting the United States due to their involvement in the detention and death of the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Those are some of its sharpest responses to human rights abuses in Russia and the rest of the world so far.

The First Fork in the Road: World War and Inferiority Complex

Details: Nation

The First Fork in the Road: World War and Inferiority Complex

Details: 03 August 2011

I know of no serious historian, whether Russian or Western, who would doubt that Russia’s fate would have been utterly different if Russia had not entered the world war in August 1914. This rare instance of consensus among historians is, however, easily explained. Imagine twentieth-century Russia without all that this fateful war brought to it: Russia without the Bolshevik Revolution, without the civil war, without the Stalinist terror — quite possibly a Russia without the devastating German invasion. (Hitler’s triumphal seizure of power in Berlin was provoked, to a crucial degree, by the Bolshevik Revolution). Imagine all this, and there’s nothing left to debate.

Russia Presents a “Challenge To Democratic Reform”

Details: News

Russia Presents a “Challenge To Democratic Reform”

Details: 30 July 2011

On July 26, 2011, the US Congress House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs chaired by Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) held an open hearing on the State of Democracy and Freedom in Eastern Europe. Four experts were invited to the panel to provide their testimonies on the current situation in the region. They all suggested that, given the latest negative political trends in Eastern Europe, the U.S. should pay closer attention to Russia, as the neighboring states are influenced by its policies and authority.

A Double Mockery

Details: News

A Double Mockery

Details: 26 July 2011; Olga Khvostunova

On July 21, the latest Kremlin political creation ‘People’s Front’ (“Narodny Front”) started the preliminary voting, or the so-called primaries, for the ‘United Russia’ party elections’ lists. It is expected by the Kremlin that this project will improve the falling ratings of the party by involving a larger number of population in the voting process. It is planned that eventually it will become a part of Vladimir Putin’s political platform if he decides upon a glorious comeback as a president in 2012.

Is It Time to Pause the ‘Reset’?

Details: News

Is It Time to Pause the ‘Reset’?

Details: 12 July 2011; Evgeniya Khilji

On Thursday, July 7, the Committee on Foreign Affairs chaired by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen held the open hearings on the US-Russia ‘reset’ policy architected by the Obama Administration. The main question raised was whether the ‘reset’ should be paused or continued in the ‘face of Russian aggression’.

Details: News

The Russian Medium Sends the Message

Details: 04 July 2011; Olga Khvostunova

The recent conflict surrounding Izvestia, one of the oldest newspaper brands in Russia, gives rise to a new wave of talks about the situation in the media market. Though the major reason for layoffs and management shifts appear to be economically induced, in Russia one cannot help wondering whether these changes might be symptoms of social and political deterioration throughout Russian society.

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