Russia under Putin The making of a neo-KGB state
ON THE evening of August 22nd 1991—16 years ago this week—Alexei Kondaurov, a KGB general, stood by the darkened window of his Moscow office and watched a jubilant crowd moving towards the KGB headquarters in Lubyanka Square. A coup against Mikhail...

Was Liberty Really Bad for Russia?
by By Leon Aron
RUSSIAN OUTLOOK AEI Online (Washington) Publication Date: August 3, 2007 Part I, Summer 2007 Criticizing preceding regimes is a popular pastime of Russian leaders. But in denouncing the “chaos of the 1990s,” the Vladimir Putin regi...

Scientist Sticks to Arctic Refuge
by By Dmitry Solovyov
NORTHEASTERN STATION, Sakha -- When Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died and the Communist propaganda machine organized a mass outpouring of grief, Sergei Zimov hardly noticed. Back in November 1982, the young scienti...

Crimea Revisited
by By John WendleThe
The beaches and mountains of Crimea were once the epitome of a Soviet Black Sea holiday. Today the peninsula, which is only connected to southern Ukraine by a short, thin neck of land, seems to draw more middle-class tourists along...

Moscow Battle: How Hitler Almost Beat Stalin
by By Andrew Nagorski
Moscow Battle: How Hitler Almost Beat Stalin The battle for Moscow—the biggest, bloodiest clash in human history—helped turn the tide against Hitler. But the Soviet leader came closer than most realize to defeat. By Andrew Nagorski Newsweek Se...

Cold War-era chills. Tourists welcome.
by By David Holley
Deep underground in a Cold War-era nuclear bomb shelter, guide Alexei Alexandrov did his best to set a spooky mood, starting with his 1960s Soviet army uniform. “Please don’t split away from the group,” he somberly warned visitors to the labyr...

Garage Makes Its Debut Daria Zhukova's much-hyped Garage opened with a retrospective by Emilia and Ilya Kabakov.
by Marina Kamenev
Entering Daria Zhukova's Garage Center for Contemporary Culture before its opening on Tuesday, was like entering a vault. A security guard with a walkie-talkie at the gate alerted the others at the entrance, just 10 meters away, that a v...

The Plot Thickens A New Book Promises an Intriguing Twist to the Epic Tale of 'Doctor Zhivago'
by By Peter Finn
MOSCOW Into one of the most sordid episodes in Russian literary history, the Soviets' persecution of Boris Pasternak, author of "Doctor Zhivago," a Russian historian has injected a belated piece of intrigue: the CIA as covert financier of...

Writers' bloc
by Sophie Cooke
In the ice-cold heart of a Russian winter, Moscow's new money throws off its designer overcoats to party in Cruce, a glittering club in an old industrial building by the river. In the latest style bars, roubles melt. On white leather sofas, bling rei...

The real secret of Khrushchev
by Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Fifty years ago a Soviet leader dared to criticise Stalin. But was this bravery or a cynical ploy? The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Friday February 25 2006 English point: In the a...