Beslan School Hostage Crisis related content 

A tale of spying gone wrong could have serious ramifications for those trying to hold the authorities to account. As Russia's election on 4 March draws near, the Kremlin...

Protesters are back on the streets of Moscow, but the rest of the world does not seem to care. Twenty years ago, the new democratic leaders of Russia were left to be dragged...

Russia's leaders are discovering that what was accepted yesterday is regarded as intolerable today. Russia is not Egypt. And Moscow is not on the eve of revolution as Cairo...

Today's protests against Russia's leadership have strong echoes of the demonstrations of 20 years ago. The Russian Federation of today is not the Soviet Union of 1991. But...

EU-Russia summit raises some inportant questions. Next week's summit meeting between the European Union and Russia comes hard on the heels of disgraceful parliamentary...

The UK prime minister's visit to Moscow also reveals much about the EU's relationship with Russia. David Cameron makes his first visit to Russia to meet his opposite number,...

Russian prime minister to meet senior EU officials. Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, is to ask the European Union's most senior officials to scrap visa requirements...

EU's ‘unbundling' policy criticised during EU-Russia meeting. Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, and José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European...

Russian prime minister to meet European Commission, discuss closer ties. Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, will meet José Manuel Barroso, the president of the...

Deep co-operation co-exists with deep differences. Little illustrates the seemingly unbridgeable differences between the West and Russia better than an image contained in...

Apprehending Akhmed Zakayev may have helped the Chechens and has shown a lack of consistency on Poland's part. Depending on how you look at it, Poland's arrest of Akhmed...

EU leaders must speak up about the situation in the North Caucasus. At recent summits with Russian leaders, European and US leaders have largely been mute about the spread...

In selling warships to Russia, France's risks nourishing delusions and selling short the idea of a common EU security policy. What is the significance of France's recent...

Insults, excuses and not knowing how to say ‘sorry' should be the behaviour of children, not grown-ups. Naughty and tiresome children like insults (both overt and...

A police raid on a politician's office in London can only deepen cynicism in the east about western democracy. Imagine the outrage if the Russian police raided the Duma and...

Russia's revival might be Western-style pragmatism, but it might be something more sinister. Four comforting bits of conventional wisdom are as follows: 1) Russia has no...

Small-scale savers and well-connected tycoons have little to worry about, but others might end up in the morgue. Seen through the framework of Western logic, the conclusion...

Russia might be on the front foot for now – but need not always be so. Even the most sanguine political observer would concede that dealing with a resurgent Russia may...

Russia will secure victory in the ‘Olympics War' courtesy of Europe's typically weak response. What does the ‘Olympics War', otherwise known as Russia's invasion of...

Russia's entrepreneurs want greater pluralism, decentralisation and more media freedom. Russia's youthful football squad gracefully obliterated the Dutch to clinch a place...