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Society

An Empty Country

— How does the Russian middle class feel about emigration?
— Who wants to leave?
— What do they hope to find?
— What effect does Putin’s potential return to power have on people’s decision to leave Russia?
— What is happening to our minds in general?

Lev Gudkov
Investigations

Will Russia be kicked out of Europe?

In June 2011 Acting Chairman of the Federation Council, Alexander Torshin, introduced the “Federal Constitutional Law on Introducing Amendments to Some Legislative Acts of the RF” draft bill in the State Duma. A more appropriate title would be: “the law on Russia’s non-compliance with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights”.

This raised many eyebrows in Europe, and with good reason. Torshin’s draft law would allow Russia to perform its international obligations selectively. Moreover, the Russian deputies have decided to put a legal seal on the rules for the Strasbourg Court to adhere to. Another point that should be of more concern to President Medvedev than to the Europeans, who could just slam the door to Europe shut in our faces, is that Torshin’s draft bill effectively changes Russia’s Main Law.

Politics

The Kremlin is trying to represent St Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko’s nomination for speaker of the Federation Council as a promotion, not punishment. Some tricky formalities, however, will have to be observed

Bashkortostan President Rustem Khamitov suggested making Matvienko speaker during Dmitry Medvedev’s meeting with regional governors. He expressed concern that the Federation Council speaker post was still vacant. Medvedev backed him, describing Matvienko as “a perfectly successful governor”
2011   2010   2009   2008   2007   2006  
Society

“Today it is criminal to remain silent”

Vladimir Sinelnikov, the author of the film Academic Sakharov – A Man for the Ages met with Yelena Bonner not long before her death
Society

No Fascists Here

The war began 70 years ago today, leaving behind millions of graves and tonnes of old photos taken on both front lines. I have looked at many of them in recent years. They are different.
Politics

Paying for the bombing

The ECHR in May continued its routine flogging of Russian judges, law enforcers and officials
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on two high-profile Russian political cases in May. First, the government was penalised for the “spy” Igor Sutyagin and then for Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Dmitry Kolbasin, Pavel Chikov
Society

Our father is the Internet and our mother is the phone camera

How the Blue Buckets Society appeared
Activists from the Internet community of the Blue Buckets Society have launched a regular column in Novaya Gazeta. The first series is the story of the technologies and people that led to the group’s emergence and how it turned into a real social force capable of communicating on equal terms with the actual armoured “body transporters” themselves.
Pyotr Shkumatov, Coordinator of Blue Buckets Society
Politics

Natalia Vasilyeva to Investigation Committee: Danilkin initially sentenced Khodorkovsky to 10 years, not 14

On Tuesday, 14 June, the former press secretary of the Khamovnichesky Court, Natalia Vasilyeva, who stated in February that pressure had been put on Judge Viktor Danilkin in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once again provided more sensational information regarding the sentence handed down to Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. This time, however, it wasn’t to the media, but rather to the Russian Investigation Committee, which had called her in for questioning.
Society

Danger zone

The ammunition explosion in the Udmurtia village of Pugachyovo is the fifteenth tragedy of its kind to take place in Russia over the last four years. The government-incurred losses from these “accidents,” written off as “negligence” and the “careless handling of weapons,” are estimated at billions of roubles. The explosions together have wounded 183 servicemen and killed 31 people, while the number of civilian casualties have not be accounted for
Society

Tamila Beniya: They·ll give me at least twenty years

On 2 June, the day when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived in Abkhazia for the funeral of President Sergei Bagapsh, two Georgians from Gali, Tamara Beniya and Abesalom Chkhetiya, were arrested on the Zugdidi-Senaki highway outside of the small town of Chitatskari. According to the Georgian Interior Ministry, this is the fifth group of terrorists sent to Georgia since 2008
Late in the evening on 3 June, the night before my flight back from Georgia, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili offered me the chance to talk with Tamara Beniya. This was one of those opportunities in journalism that you cannot refuse
Politics

Who can lend a helping hand?

Lukashenko is willing to take money from the IMF and EurAsEC, but is not willing to promise anything in return
A mission from the International Monetary Fund began working in Minsk on Wednesday and on its very first day received an official request for a loan from the Belarusian government and National Bank. The exact size of Belarus’s appetite is still not known, but experts believe the loan request ranged from $3.5 billion to $8 billion. An official IMF representative has already stated that the IMF is willing to discuss this issue with the Belarusian authorities in the near future
Society

“I’m ashamed. This isn’t a parliament.”

A student working as an intern in the State Duma wrote in his blog how much parliamentarians spend on trips, how they vote, what priests are doing in the Duma, who wins the most card games during working sessions and which deputy’s iPod is the coolest. A reaction to the “report” was quick to follow.
Politics

Absolutely safe: But only in five years

President Medvedev announced at a recent press conference that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev would not pose a danger to anyone if they were to be released, but the independent Moscow City Court decided on its own, “Nah. Let ‘em sit there a while longer”. We have yet to hear the Supreme Court’s verdict…
Politics

The Anti-Putin Consensus

Three fourths of Russians believe that politicians, including the prime minister, “are interested only in being elected, and not in what the voters really want”
Georgy Ilichev
Society

People of the New Day

“The easiest thing to do is close your eyes and refuse to see, saying ‘it’s every man for himself’. Or to say that it’s the government’s responsibility to help them, and that the state , and not us, ought to ensure that seniors don’t die from hunger and solitude, that large families are a thing of joy and children are not abandoned… But the state is made up of citizens like you and I. And if we are indifferent to the plight of our neighbour, if charity is not our concern, if the pain of others does not move us, if we keep waiting for others to act, then we will not notice that we are those others, that we are in the same boat… A society in which people walk indifferently past another’s misfortune is doomed.”
Politics

Offshore bank for a dictator

Hiding money in Switzerland has become dangerous and leaders of authoritarian regimes should consider the state of Delaware and Islamic banks
The Arab revolutions have dealt another blow at Swiss banking secrecy, thought to be immutable for over seventy years. The Swiss Confederation has had to freeze the assets of toppled dictators, causing concern to many people who keep their ill-gotten gains in the West. Experts believe they will now seek an alternative to Switzerland in friendly Middle East countries. The money of corrupt Russians may, too, be moved elsewhere, but not back home. Billions in cash and seaside palaces are too noticeable and may be grabbed by enemies, unlike good old offshore banks
Nikolai Kochelyagin
Politics

Prokhorov goes to the Right

The Right Cause party has made up its mind about its new leader. It was revealed on Sunday that Russian business tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov had agreed to head up the party. He was not previously spotted engaging in political activities, aside from a visit to the Nashi movement camp on Lake Seliger, and as late as April brushed aside any suggestions that he might become the leader of the Right Cause
Politics

Medvedev is not answerable for Khodorkovsky

On the eve of President Medvedev’s press conference at Skolkovo, the Moscow City Court rids the President of uncomfortable questions.
On Tuesday 17 May, those who are following the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev had a strong sense of déjà vu. Just as, in December last year, Judge Danilkin postponed reading out the sentence on both businessmen by a week, so this time the Moscow City Court Appeals Panel postponed by a week hearings on the appeal by the accused against the sentence… In both cases the postponements were announced the day before press conferences by the country’s leaders…
Politics

First day of freedom

Irina Khalip, Novaya Gazeta’s correspondent in Belarus, has been convicted of “participating in group actions in gross violation of public law and order” and has been sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years. Sergey Martselov, head of presidential candidate Nikolai Statkevich’s campaign headquarters, got the same sentence. The third accused in the trial, co-chairman of the Belorussian Christian Democracy Party, Pavel Severinets, was sentenced to three years of restricted freedom without being sent to a correctional institution (so-called “chemistry”).
Politics

Modernisation as a divider

Why Medvedev is nevertheless better than non-Medvedev
What new can be said about how the two heads of the Byzantine eagle, having spread their wings over Russia (just as the one-headed Pobedonostsev did at one time, but with owl wings, if the poet is to be believed), have begun pecking at one another? Everything has already been said – both the listing of mutual criticism and the version that this is all nothing more than a simulation of a conflict, a substitute for a real political battle, and that this clash isn’t so much about the heads of state as it is about their entourage.
Politics

15 Million in Damages for Pensions, Housing, TB…

April: Why has the Strasbourg Court Fined Russia?
The European Court of Human Rights created a resounding political precedent for Russia in April 2011. The court essentially ruled that the dissolution of Vladimir Ryzhkov’s Republican Party was illegal and awarded its representatives 7,000 euros. Overall, the government’s monthly court-ordered bill reached over 370,000 euros for pensioners’ poverty, housing fraud, torture, Chechnya, and prison diseases
Politics

The motherland foots the bill

Kamchatka officials and lawmakers report on their Bentleys, helicopters and suburban Moscow villas
Kamchatka has long and justifiably been considered a deeply depressed region with poorly developed industry and low living standards. Several billion roubles in federal subventions and grants are pumped into the region each year. The money is spent quickly and quietly, but the majority of the population, nonetheless, continues to live in poverty. There are people, however, who have managed to prosper in this desolate land. There are quite a few of them, and in Kamchatka they are well-known to many people…
Vladimir Khitrov
Politics

Tea with Putin-2

Putin begins implementing Mussolini programme
It may be a bad thing to quote oneself, but Putin’s creation of the Popular Front is nevertheless a unique occasion that makes it possible to excuse virtually anything. In January 2000, the Izvestiya newspaper retracted my column titled “Tea with Putin” as part of totally understandable censorship – I managed to compare the man, who was just about to become president, with Mussolini! I had to get the column published in the Vedomosti newspaper, which was still young and eager at the time. My impressions from Franco Zeffirelli’s film “Tea with Mussolini” were still fresh in my mind, and the allusion to what was happening in Russia at that time just screamed out at me.
Politics

Osama bin Laden given up by his own people and drowned

The founder of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, has been killed by US Navy Seal forces, but not at all in the place where most people thought he would have been hiding. It took place on Pakistani territory, but not in the mountain caves on the Afghan-Pakistani border, where numerous armed terrorist groups operate and virtually control the territory. As it turns out, bin Laden lived far from this area: his residence was the city of Abbottabad on the border with India’s Kashmir, in the quiet foothills of a resort-filled green valley, where the summer heat isn’t nearly as intense as it is in the lower valleys of the Indus valley
Politics

Nine years, seven months and twenty days after the most inconceivable news possible – the destruction of the World Trade Centre twin towers in New York – America is reliving the sensation: Osama bin Laden is dead

A joint operation by an elite squad of the US Army and CIA was calculated down to the minute. The immediate evacuation of the corpse to a US warship was followed by an instantaneous autopsy on the body, confirming with a 99.9% degree of reliability that there was no mistaken identity, then perhaps the world’s fastest funeral: bin Laden’s body was lowered into the depths of the sea so that he would disappear forever
Politics

Medvedev is better than no Medvedev

The results of President Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency will be summed up three years from the day of his inauguration, since the final year will be held amidst elections and isn’t very representative in this regard. Therefore, it makes sense to assess the interim results, while stipulating beforehand that Novaya Gazeta is not an opposition newspaper, but rather the free one. We thereby reserve the right to also provide the not so trendy, positive appraisals of the president’s actions
Investigations

Mr Sechin and Mr Dvorkovich hitch a ride on “passing airplanes”

Igor Sechin told Novaya Gazeta that he has never flown on Gunvor majority shareholder Gennady Timchenko’s private jets, and Arkady Dvorkovich’s wife officially pays for all of his private flights.
Politics

Questioning Kadyrov

The Moscow City Court has held another session in the lawsuit (on libel) filed by Republic of Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov against Memorial Human Rights Centre Director Oleg Orlov. Six months after the legal proceedings began, the aggrieved Kadyrov personally expounded on his position in court
Society

In quest of a certificate

I invite you, gentlemen. All of you, bosses and MPs, ministers and spin doctors, all those who lick the ice cream paid for by petro dollars and chase it down with the bubbly of politics, come to 21 Vavilov Street, to the guard’s booth and the beam and look at the queue in which we stand. There is no better parliament than a queue and there is no more honest place than the street. Come and we will talk!
Politics

Giving signals

The president and the prime minister each sent the relevant signals to their respective constituencies. Modernisation, Skolkovo and Dozhd TV are Medvedev’s trademark signals while the building materials industry and the reinforced concrete plant are Putin’s. In return for transmitting his signals, Medvedev promised to announce his further plans for Dozhd TV-audience. The prime minister presumably will do the same at the reinforced concrete plant.
Politics

The Syrian cataclysm or the end of Soviety-style policy in the Middle East

During his triumphant visit to Tehran in 2010, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with his every step being televised, was Iranian national television's main attraction. Fast-forward to today and the Iranian authorities have banned any broadcasting of the upheavels facing Iran's ally. Should you glance over at al-Assad's friends in Moscow, they are just as worried, if not more
Politics

John Beyrle: “For starters, we want to extend bilateral visas to two years”

Has the U.S. set the goal of overthrowing Gaddafi? What is happening with the Libyan leader’s U.S. bank accounts? Will there be a change in the U.S. policy towards friendly authoritarian regimes? When can we expect visa-free travel between Russia and the U.S.? Do Americans want Russia to become a WTO member? U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle recently took the time to answer these and other questions.
Politics

Yevkurov and ritual

Some interesting pot-stirring is taking place in Ingushetia. The Republic has a new Supreme Court Chairman, Ibragim Fargiyev. A military lawyer, scholar and teacher, he is said to have been one of Moscow’s candidates for Ingush President when Murat Zyazikov was starting to lose the Kremlin’s support. Engaged public opinion is watching how Fargiyev and President Yevkurov are measuring each other up. There are signs that the judiciary branch is headed for a showdown with the executive branch. The previous chairman of the Ingush Supreme Court, Mikhail Zadvornov, lost a similar contest
Society

Doctor Roshal discloses medical secret

Leonid Roshal, Director of the Emergency Pediatric Surgery and Traumatology Institute, has had the text of his speech at the Russian Medical Forum removed from many websites. We are publishing it here because it gives food for thought not only for the medical community, but for everyone who ever needs medical assistance.
Politics

Yuri Luzhkov: I’ve been stung by bees and people

The former Mayor of Moscow gives an interview to his current students.
Politics

Tip toe along? Or truck it?

Partial reform is a cause for more dissatisfaction than no reform at all. And those who are dissatisfied are always the most decisive of all.
Society

What’s happening with Chernobyl? It’s radiating

The world’s biggest nuclear disaster occurred 25 years ago and the repercussions have yet to be eradicated despite frequent promises
Politics

Free the president!

Dmitry Medvedev, while maintaining sound personal relations with Vladimir Putin, is choosing his own political path and planning to run for president
Society

Several people and organisations suddenly remembered how former State Duma Deputy Ashot Yegiazaryan had helped them after Novaya Gazeta published an article about him

Novaya Gazeta has received a letter from Ashot Yegiazaryan’s lawyer and advisor, who turned out to be very unhappy with us publishing an article on the patron’s charitable activities
Society

Gambaro means “we can do it” in Japanese

Twenty emergency clean-up workers have already been evacuated after exceeding the threshold of 250 millisieverts. One of them even had his leg scalded by beta radiation when he accidentally stepped in a radioactive puddle in a dark basement and drew highly contaminated water into his boot.
Society

From Gagarin’s will: “I have total confidence in the machinery. It shouldn’t fail. But the fact is sometimes a person can fall and break his neck while standing on flat ground.”

It is only now, from declassified documents, that we can learn about the unexpected details and incredible fortuity that formed the success in which both Sergei Korolyov and Yuri Gagarin so strongly believed. Here is the story, written by none other than history itself…
Politics

How the Khamovniki district court touched up the minutes from the YUKOS case court hearings

Platon Lebedev discovered considerable discrepancies between the audio recordings from court hearings at the second YUKOS trial and the minutes from the same hearings that Khamovniki district court, which sentenced him and Mikhail Khodorkovsky to 14 years in prison, provided to him. In particular, the minutes distort statements from testimony given by the former Minister for Economic Development, Herman Gref, omit Prosecutor Gyulchekhra Ibragimova’s brownbeating witness Aleksei Golubovich and disregards Judge Victor Danilkin’s admitting that he does not know English…
Politics

Emirate sunset

During a special operation in Ingushetia that lasted several days, about 20 insurgents were killed or detained. A major terrorist base in Verkhny Alkun was destroyed in an air raid. (This is not the first time air strikes have been used in the spring when the trees have still yet to sprout leaves.) Doku Umarov, the supreme Emir of the Caucasus Emirate, may be among the dead. DNA tests will be used to identify him. But even if Umarov is not among the dead, the sun may be setting on his terrorist organisation
Politics

The main international confrontation of the XXI century is between hydrocarbon despotisms and pipeline democracies.

Yulia Latynina’s analysis backs up Viktor Pelevin’s statement. What is really going on with Russian natural gas?
Politics

Putin and Mongol

A few days ago we were shown a curtailed version of the capture of Mongol, a legendary snow leopard, in the Sayan Mountains. To enable Vladimir Putin to “meet” (as the Prime minister’s press service put it) another rare feline, Mongol was caught in a trap and thrown in a cage. Striving to break out and hurling itself against the iron cage, Mongol smashed his the front of his face.
Politics

How is the Belarusian opposition getting along?

If people in detention cells are being given newspapers with torn out pages, that means the situation on the outside isn’t completely hopeless
Minsk in January and Minsk in March are two completely different cities. Back then, Minsk was surviving on hope. Now Minsk has been inundated with despair and consternation. Court proceedings are underway, while searches, interrogations and the expulsion of students continue. But the most important thing is the universal and destructive distrust.
Politics

Medvedev interpreted Putin’s statement on Libya correctly. And responded that he is still President

The hysterical democratic press has been completely rehabilitated in the eyes of the Russian President’s domestic policy department. It has nothing at all to do with driving a wedge into the tandem, united and inseparable as the worker and collective farmer statue; it is the Prime Minister who is doing this
Culture

Souvenir democracy factory

Any differences within the tandem are stylistic rather than political. No new casting is on the cards for this particular star factory. The key words here are from prison slang: “We’ll work it out.”
Slava Taroschina
Society

JAPAN: Everybody has something to keep silent about

The government is playing down the threat not to cause panic among the people. The population silently peers at the list of missing persons
Andrei Ostrovsky
Yuri Maltsev (photo)
Politics

Lukashenko reveals a “secret”: Ira Khalip’s phone was bugged

Three months on from the presidential elections, Belarus remains a “hot spot”. More information continues to emerge about the consequences of the 19 December events in Minsk.
Society

Big money and sick children

The Internet search engine cache has captured and preserved for history photos taken at the “charitable” banquet put on by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Hollywood stars. Anton Zorkin, a television anchorman, deleted his photos and posts, but it was too late…
Society

Dear Sharon Stone, Alain Delon, Mickey Rourke, Ornella Muti, Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Kevin Costner, Paul Anka, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Victoria Beckham, Liz Mitchell, and In-Grid,

On 8-11 December 2010, you all (each in accordance with your individual schedules) participated in the charitable program ‘Believe in a Dream’ organized by the Russian charitable foundation ‘Federation’ in St. Petersburg. Some of you not only took part in the concert, but also visited two children’s hospitals and talked with children suffering from severe oncological diseases in desperate need of costly treatment. We thank you for this. Yet, do you know that no funds were collected as a result of that charity concert aimed at helping children? Do you know that the result of the charity concert on 10 December 2010 was ABSOLUTE ZERO and the result of the charity auction on 11 December 2010 was less than 3 thousand dollars?
Politics

Pressure is building up in the electoral depths

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called United Russia’s performance in the regional elections “more than satisfactory”. In other words, he gave it a C. So in reality the prime minister gave the party a C +, which is a fair enough assessment
Dmitry Oreshkin
Society

We are with you!

We wish all of you — your country and society — courage and fortitude. We are certain that you will overcome this difficult situation and all its consequences — material, as well as psychological and emotional...
Novaya Gazeta
Culture

Patriotic movies in a dead end

No patriotic films worth speaking of have been produced in Russia in the past ten years. Could it be because the country as a whole has problems with the “script”?
Vasily Gerosin
Investigations

WANTED!

Ashot Egiazaryan is seeking political asylum in the United States on the basis of false information regarding his charitable projects in Russia
Politics

Don’t break out the Borjomi just yet!

Putin’s secret weapon, Gennady Onishchenko, is once again in the forefront of Russia’s schism with Georgia. This time around he is ready to act as a reconciliatory
Investigations

Who did Putin play the grand piano for, and whose tune did certain Hollywood stars march to?

Was it a charity event or a great scam with the participation of the Prime Minister of Russia? What did we see in St Petersburg at the beginning of December?
Investigations

Whois ANNACHAPMAN.RU?

An online register has revealed the deadline for launching the political media project "Anna Chapman". Is this a fiasco? No, this happened BEFORE the fiasco...
Investigations

Putin still can use the palace

...because it was fortunately sold to the prime minister’s friends
Politics

Yunus-bek Yevkurov: 'Don't make each other see red.'

The President of Ingushetia talks to a Novaya Gazeta special correspondent
Politics

You can run but you cannot hide from American planes in the Libyan desert

The most likely outcome for Gaddafi could involve high-precision bombing
Politics

Gorbachev

Those that Gorbachev’s perestroika helped reach the very heights of power could not forgive him either the greatness of his vision or the daring scale of his actions. Those that came to power thanks to him later took malicious and petty revenge on him
Politics

Boris Nemtsov: All three mothers of my children called me at once: "Where's the dough? Where are the yachts? Where is my part?" For the most part, they were joking of course

The meeting with Nemtsov was scheduled to be at the restaurant of the Central House of Writers. He spoke about Luzhkov, about Putin and about himself (it is interesting that the heroes of his works often lose their job a certain time after publication, he is practically a doomsayer), but I write about simpler characters
Society

Decorations for the President

Afghan war veteran hands back all his decorations to the state in order to “secede from the Russian Federation”
Business

Lisin Attacked by Parasites

Russia’s wealthiest (officially) person wants his money back, but the courts side with a Ponzi schemer. A story of an economic ‘miracle’ built on free-riding and pretense
Politics

Georgia: war and reform.

Part two
Society

The Economics of Piracy

Continuing coverage of Mikhail Voitenko’s investigation.
Society

Civil Defence Against Friendlies

Citizens and organisations assess damage following fire and explosion at military arsenal in Udmurtia
Society

Minor Katyn

Why the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office was unable to investigate the massacre of Polish citizens in Augustów Forest in 1945
Culture

Zakhar Prilepin: Summer jottings about winter jerks

A play by Kirill Serebrennikov’s studios touching on a sensitive social issue
Monologues for Novaya Gazeta
Society

Four years of explosions…

The detonation of ammunition in the Udmurtia village of Pugachyovo is the fifteenth tragedy of its kind to take place in Russia since 23 May 2008. Before this fateful day, military ammunition depots had been silent for 963 days as of 3 October 2005, but since 23 May 2008 the explosions have been particularly frequent, with two in 2008, three in 2009, six in 2010 and already four in less than half a year in 2011. In most cases the explosions have caused casualties
Society

“We need ordinary flathead families to learn about gays”

Novaya Gazeta correspondents spent three days with the organisers of the Moscow Pride gay parade in order to find out why they have taken to the streets and why they are is being precluded from doing so
Society

The president promises to revive investigation

Mothers of Beslan suggest he return the death penalty
At a meeting with members of the Mothers of Beslan organisation, Susanna Dudiyeva and Elvira Tuayeva, President Dmitry Medvedev admitted that “neither administrative, nor legal implications were made” after one of the world’s most terrible terrorist attacks and promised to revive the investigation into the Beslan school seizure
Society

Russia. Dislike.

Research on the “Facebook Era” wave of emigration. Why Russia won’t make it to the demographic crisis of 2050. Facts. Stories. Protagonists.
Politics

Russian Duma deputies among Forbes billionaires, yet many of their spouses are even wealthier than their lawmaker husbands

Novaya Gazeta analysed figures and trends, and United Russia came out on top as the wealthiest party
Politics

Private interest serving the state

Russia’s policy in the Middle East depends on arms market trade intermediaries
Israeli military attaché, Colonel Vadim Leiderman, was detained by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officials in Moscow on 12 May following a business lunch with an unnamed Russian citizen, accused of espionage and immediately (within 48 hours) deported. No official explanations on the specific nature of the espionage were immediately given. Instead, information was leaked to the media that the attaché was allegedly lobbying for the sale of Israeli military drones to Russian security forces. He got in the way of the Russian manufacturers and competitors, and was punished for doing so. But lobbying for Israeli products in Russia, of course, is not espionage.
Politics

Irina Khalip: Exchanging 15 days for 15 years

How I spent the first days after my arrest
Politics

Sergei Mironov burned by the verb

The Federation Council speaker has been ousted from his post for using verbs in the future tense as well as “betrayal of Putin” and Matviyenko (whose reign in St. Petersburg shall be called the “golden age”)
Politics

Banana Presidency

Both Putin with his Popular Front and Medvedev with his Skolkovo moment tried to demonstrate their right to power, but they revealed something else: the Chief Hierarch has nothing to offer society.
Society

Meeting cancelled between Irina Khalip and Andrei Sannikov

Irina has no idea what has happened to her husband
Politics

“I’ll call in a team of cleaners to get rid of the smell of KGB men from my home”.

After the sentence was passed, Irina Khalip said why she had been kept under house arrest, why journalism was the best profession in the world and what she would do when released
Investigations

There’s nothing holy - it’s only business

Who made money reconstructing the Grave of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden and how
Society

Volunteers Look for Maniacs and Missing People

Six-year-old Sasha Stepanov, who got lost in the woods in the Mozhaisk District, has been found — but that is only one of the many high-profile feats they claim credit for
Irina Vorobyova
Politics

Medvedev on top of a tank

The President gives a dressing down to the people responsible for the defence order. The issue at stake is not just tanks and planes but who will go to labour camp and who will remain in power and in control of trillions
Politics

Five years in a maximum security prison for the father; the prosecutor requests two years for the mother with a deferment of punishment. For Daniil, just four - his fourth birthday

Coverage from the trial of Irina Khalip, her family and her homeland
Politics

Like Father, Unlike Son

The President’s initiative to replace government officials with independent directors on state-owned company boards has been sabotaged – in a cunning bureaucratic way
Politics

The jailed Belarusian Presidential Candidate Andrei SANNIKOV: "I was told that if I wanted to help my wife, it should provide the necessary evidence"

Statement in Court jn te 12th of May
Politics

A crack on the dashboard

How do officials in the presidential affairs department manage to earn more than ten million a year when they make only a hundred thousand roubles a month?
Politics

But what about petrol, captain?!

The fuel crisis: a monopolist conspiracy or a breakdown in the manually controlled economy?
Politics

Under the protection of the Prosecutor General

It was enough for Domodedovo to arrange to sell 25% of its shares to foreign investors for the office of Yuri Chaika immediately to detect a threat to national security in foreigners participating in running the country’s largest airport. Even Yukos was never accused of such things.
Politics

The Decline of the Silovik,

or When the Petrol Runs Out
Politics

The Mushroom gatherer saw it all

An important witness comes forward in the case of former Belarusian presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov
Politics

Wake up, Mongolians!

Ulan Bator: eight nomad tents stand near the house of parliament. Nomads wander the town square, horses neigh, and shepherd dogs bark. Our special correspondent reports from the very thick of the young Mongolian revolution.
Semyon Laskin
Society

Business at the end of the needle

Legal pharmaceutical companies control up to a quarter of the Russian market for hard drugs
Politics

Why can’t government officials fly like everyone else?

Ministers and the heads of state corporations answered some questions from Novaya Gazeta about how they get around in the skies
Society

Latter-day “Decembrists’ wives”

Olga Romanova, a television anchor and famous journalist, goes to visit her husband in jail every month, laden with provisions. Thanks to their struggle for freedom, we have learned a lot about premediated cases and what the wives of “economic criminals” have gone through.
Politics

The master of imaginative figures

Vladimir Putin delivers a Quasi una fantasia sonata: the figures and facts don’t match up
Politics

Factories, tanks, offshore firms and neighbours

What do the pirates who hijacked the Arctic Sea and the Prime Minister’s cronies have in common? Who among the executive managers of Russian state-owned companies worked for the people who were watched by Monaco police?
Politics

Seeing the light

Western public opinion is becoming less tolerant of lack of freedom
Investigations

To own Russia

The country has a parallel budget. Who is forming it and how is it spent? Where does the money go from the tax inspectorate for billionaires?
Politics

Facing the music

Hearings are underway in the wild ram poaching case that led to the crash of a helicopter and the death of seven people
Culture

Penis, monstration, innovation

Radical artists awarded prizes for contemporary art
Society

“I am a Soviet from Space”

Fifty years ago, the first cosmonaut landed in the Saratov region between the villages of Smelovka and Uzmorye. Since then, there has been nothing but trouble in the villages.
Politics

It can be stated with confidence: Governor Polezhayev’s family is not stealing the air

The family clan form of government has turned “one of the most developed regions of Siberia” (Omsk region) into one of the most difficult for survival.
Society

Thoughts from within the Church

Three clergymen from Udmurtia openly criticise Patriarch Kirill and are immediately dismissed from their service.
Society

How to cure a haemorrhoid with a cucumber

Contemporary propaganda as a copy of its Soviet forebear
Society

Marina Goldovskaya: “Be yourself and don’t look back”

The world-renowned documentary film maker Marina Goldovskaya is releasing a new film dedicated to Anna Politkovskaya.
Society

Mikhail Gorbachev: Happy at 80

The world honoured him in London on Wednesday
Politics

«Let the train driver bring my dad quicker»

Novaya Gazeta’s correspondent in Belarus, Irina Khalip, is now into her second month of being under house arrest. She finds it all the more difficult to explain what’s going on to her son
Politics

“I won’t tell you just yet, but perhaps I’ll tell you later…”

The accused Tikhonov and his accomplices threaten exposures of their “minders” who are close to the President’s Administration
Politics

“I’ve been sentenced to life in prison.

I am being forced to write denunciations in connection with other high-profile crimes and to give false testimony against innocent people. I want to tell you how murders and terrorist attacks are really solved.”
Politics

Diplomatic Panic

Pavel Felgengauer’s response to the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations
Society

Waiting for a miracle

Two weeks have passed since the catastrophe in Japan, yet people are still looking for their family members and loved ones. And they are still finding some of them alive
Business

Eastern Babylon

Vladivostok is preparing to host the APEC summit under conditions similar to wartime
Society

Only one thing is worse than wind: rain

In Japan, the Geiger counter has replaced television. Our special correspondent Pavel Kanygin reports from the contaminated zone
Society

Tokyo against the background of radiation

Our special correspondent reports from Japan, where the future now depends on volunteers (who have already been dubbed kamikaze)
Society

Hazing in the army put on contract basis

Reforms have managed to overcome hazing in the Russian Army as a system of slavery that swallowed up each and every young soldier. But now racketeering by contract officers has taken its place
Politics

He had time to tell about the torture

Belarusian presidential candidate leaves KGB detention facility and flees abroad
Sport

Russian biathlon teams’ dismal performance

What begins as drama does not always end up as a farce, but this is exactly what happened to team Russia at the world biathlon championship in Khanty-Mansiisk
Society

Kadyrov's Dribbling and Putin's Fingering

In Soviet times there existed the concept of a "harmonically developed personality." Or, putting it simply, – a Jack of all trades. This is just the sort of leaders we have in our country
Politics

Gorbachev: "I trust people, generally…"

Today's disputes on modernisation resemble great deal of the conflict between the President of the USSR and Politburo officials regarding Nina Andreyeva’s controversial article "I cannot go against my principles"
Politics

Shameless elections

Over the past ten years, electoral laws have been amended by the victorious party. The rules work in favour of United Russia, that is, a massive community of bureaucrats and business groups. Below are some of the “democratic” modifications that have been adopted at two of the last Russian presidents’ suggestion
Investigations

A Ticket for a Flight and for Landing

A corruption scandal in the Tula region implicates its Governor. Details
Business

Windfall of cash bursts dam

Boguchanskaya Hydro Power Plant (HPP) to be brought on line despite Rostekhnadzor orders
Society

“He came to give us freedom”

How television celebrated Mikhail Gorbachev’s 80th birthday
Politics

Disappointment in Putin will be much deeper and fiercer than disappointment in Yeltsin

The imperial syndrome combined with anti-corruption posturing will provide an explosive mixture of enormous destructive power. What’s in store for us?
Politics

“United Russia” is a party of thieves and corrupt officials*

During a radio-broadcast debate between Aleksey Navalny and Yevgeny Fedorov (a member of United Russia party), the team Internet annihilated team state-controlled television 99 to 1. The poll held on Navalny’s blog and finam.fm radio only confirm obvious trend: people that live in an free Internet, reading and listening to free media, want freedom in real life
In Memory of Igor Domnikov (rus)In Memory of Yuri Shekochihin (rus)In Memory of Anna Politkovskaya (rus)
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