The Gift of Forgetfulness

August is known as an explosive month in Russian history. But in recent years, the country’s citizens don’t seem too keen on celebrating numerous anniversaries that are joyful for some but shameful and tragic for others. This August, besides commemorating the putsch of 1991 and the financial default of 1998, there is an even “rounder” anniversary – forty years since the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia. Few know much about this event, but those who do would rather forget.
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Russia Profile Magazine

United Russia claims to be Conservative in the European Sense, but Is It Really?

One of the surprising reactions that followed Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s death has been that of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. While liberal figures predictably praised Solzhenitsyn and lamented his death and the communists remained silent, the leadership of United Russia was unexpectedly vocal in claiming Solzhenitsyn as one of its own – as a conservative.
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Russia Profile magazine

A Black and White World

Nowadays, while watching Russian and Western television channels simultaneously, even a viewer experienced in information wars can still get a more or less objective picture of the events taking place in South Ossetia and in Georgia. But if the viewer is inexperienced (as is the overwhelming majority of people in all countries on earth), then he will either get lightheaded or think that two completely different wars are being discussed.
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Russia Profile Magazine