In Moscow's Shadows 25: Navalny in Prison
A short. 'one act' special: with the news (still unconfirmed) that Navalny is being sent to IK-2 penal colony in Vladimir region, I look at the prison, and what that may mean for him.You can also foll...
27 Feb 202116min
In Moscow's Shadows 24: Scenarios for Russia after Navalny, and Dzerzhinsky vs Nevsky [reloaded]
With Navalny in prison, the opposition mobilising, and the state cracking down, what will happen next? The only honest answer anyone can give is "no idea." So instead of trying to make predictions, I...
21 Feb 202156min
In Moscow's Shadows 23: Is Navalny the best thing that ever happened to Putinism? Russia's 'Stolypin moment'?
It's a deliberately provocative title, I know, but how might the 'Navalny effect' impact late Putinism? A swing towards blunt and uncompromising authoritarianism? A genuine 'reform that you may preser...
6 Feb 202139min
In Moscow's Shadows 22: The Morning After A Hot Day in Russia
Yesterday saw major protests all across Russia, a genuine success for Team Navalny. But now what? My rough and uncurated first thoughts...You can also follow my blog, In Moscow's Shadows, and become o...
24 Jan 202133min
In Moscow's Shadows Cellcast: 18 January 2021: What does the Kremlin do with Navalny?
Another short 'cellcast', though given its timeliness, going public straightaway.In this cellcast, recorded on 18 January 2021, I take a very speculative, un-thought-through look at the Kremlin's opti...
18 Jan 202113min
In Moscow's Shadows 21: The Federal Protection Service (FSO) and Russian security politics; and Three Stories About the Opposition
The FSO, the Federal Protection Service (or Federal Guard Service) is more that just Putin's dark-suited bodyguards, or the goose-stepping soldiers at the Eternal Flame. In my latest exploration of Ru...
11 Jan 202144min
Twelve Days of Shadowy Christmas: 4 January: Kulikovo, 1380 to 2021
So Russia has a new laser system, called Peresvet. Pere-who? This gets me talking, for the last of the Twelve Days of Shadowy Christmas cellcasts, about the battle of Kulikovo in 1380 - and why it mat...
11 Jan 202116min
Twelve Days of Shadowy Christmas: 1 January: Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu
How did Defence Minister Shoigu make it from graduating from Krasnoyarsk Poly as a construction engineer to being discussed as a potential future president? In this third cellcast of the 2020-21 Twelv...
8 Jan 202121min
