
Award-winning director and playwright sentenced to six years PRO Members Public
A Russian military court on Monday put a grim end to one of the most high-profile political cases of the last year. Director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk were sentenced to six years in prison on charges of “justifying terrorism.” The case is designed to become a demonstrative example

Online voting, electronic manipulation PRO Members Public
Russia’s electoral system is moving closer to the Kremlin’s idea of perfection. For the first time in history, an upcoming poll for elections to the Moscow City Duma will be fully online. Electronic voting makes it much easier for the authorities to manipulate the results and has the

THE BELL WEEKLY: Kremlin goes all-in on online elections PRO Members Public
Hello. This week we look at how the Kremlin is embracing online voting — and how it further streamlines the manipulation of elections. We also look at how a state-backed mortgage program fuelled inequality and a housing bubble, and a landmark sentence designed to scare Russia’s intelligentsia. Online voting, electronic

Why is Narendra Modi coming to Moscow? PRO Members Public
Hello! Welcome to your weekly guide to the Russian economy — written by Alexandra Prokopenko and Alexander Kolyandr and brought to you by The Bell. Our top story this time is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first wartime visit to Russia. We also look at whether legal proceedings to designate

Russia’s propagandists on the Biden-Trump debate PRO Members Public
A presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was always going to be too tasty an affair to pass up for Russia’s hoard of propagandists. While the coverage on state TV was surprisingly calm, focused mainly on Biden’s health, columns published on pro-Kremlin sites were far more

Moscow goes crazy for Kanye West PRO Members Public
Il y a moins de six mois, le journaliste américain Tucker Carlson s'est rendu à Moscou pour un voyage qui a sans doute été le point culminant de l'année pour les propagandistes russes qui dénigrent l'Occident. Aujourd'hui, une autre célébrité américaine, le rappeur Ye (Kanye West), serait en ville. Et une fois de plus, Moscou s'est emparé de cette visite

A string of hardline proposals from Russia’s chief investigator PRO Members Public
Russia is never short of outrageous proposals from officials looking to grab the headlines. But last week was impressive even by those standards, with Russia’s Chief Investigator Alexander Bastrykin rafting off a string of ultra-hardline initiatives he wants the country to adopt. In the space of just three days

THE BELL WEEKLY: Tough talk from Russia’s top investigator PRO Members Public
Hello! This week we cover a raft of hardline proposals from the head of the Investigative Committee, look at how Russia reacted to the US presidential debate and the buzz around Kanye West’s rumored visit to Moscow. A string of hardline proposals from Russia’s chief investigator Russia is

Russia’s anti-Olympics turns into Soviet-style joke PRO Members Public
Around the world sports fans are tucking into a summer of top-quality competitions. The Euro 2024 and Copa America football tournaments are underway, to be followed by the Paris Olympics which kicks off next month. Russia is not competing in any of them, banned from both Uefa football competitions and

Will Ukraine be blamed for the latest Russian terror attack? PRO Members Public
A shock attack in Russia’s southern Dagestan region, the largest there in many years, killed at least 15 police officers. It is the third terrorist attack carried out by Islamist groups in Russia this year, and officials have already tried to draw some connections to Ukraine, despite an obvious