Media Crackdown, Episode II

MTV Russia has cancelled "State Department", a weekly politics show presented by socialite and popular TV host Ksenya Sobchak, just hours before a prominent opposition leader was due to appear.

Media Crackdown

If anybody had any doubts that the ruling regime’s steamroller is methodically “paving the motorway” to the 1st round victory of it’s champion in the upcoming elections, these doubts should be disappearing quickly.

Putin’s “most dangerous rival”

The Russian Prime Minister has finally found an opponent worthy of putting up a true fight.

Putin's "gladiators" or the art of "proxy campaigning"

Why fight your opponents when you have "gladiators"? Vladimir Putin has invented a new kind of political warfare: the “proxy debates”.

A political song duel

Western political campaign managers create slogans. Russian political activists create music videos. Here comes "war of the titans".

G8 and a Changing Consensus

The G8 summit came and went last week and was a relatively low key affair. It is testament to the rise of countries such as China, India and Brazil that the G8 no longer retains the same importance.

Lights, camera, Ovechkin

Alex Ovechkin is one of the world's greatest hockey players. But do his fans really know him? In his new movie released this week they will get a real insiders view of the man we call OVI