Yury Zaretskiy (HSE): The Russian State and its Universities: A History of the Present. From the Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, a special issue on police brutality and police reform in Russia and the CIS. Putin v. Pussy Riot: The trial of a punk band highlights the social troubles of post-Soviet Russia. How much influence does Father Tikhon Shevkunov have over the Russian president? Charles Clover investigates. John M. Handley reviews The Strongman: Vladimir Putin and the Struggle for Russia by Angus Roxburgh. Masked gunmen raid the offices of a Siberian indigenous organization in Buryatia in Russia, kidnapping two men and taking them to undisclosed locations. Russia and the West: Alessandro Vitale on the myth of Russian cultural homogeneity and the “Siberian Paradox”. Michela A.G. Iazzarino on a survival dictionary for Siberia, the biggest and coldest place in the world (in 8 parts). Tower Records: Andrew Biliter on the Moscow that never was. Yelena Akhtiorskaya reviews Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy by Douglas Smith. Joerg Baten reviews The Standard of Living and Revolutions in Russia, 1700–1917 by Boris Mironov.
