Statistics issued by Rosstat and the United Nations show that Russia now consists of 15 to 20 “national disaster zones,” enormous regions larger than many countries and having standards of living which are “similar to the very...
Sergey Mironov, head of the Just Russia Party, says there may be as many as five million homeless people in the Russian Federation. Moscow experts say that may be too high, but all agree that the official figure Rosstat gives – 64,000...
“For the first time in the 21st century, the Russian regime is seeking to accustom its citizens to the thought that a worsening of living conditions is not the result of ‘temporary difficulties’ but rather a new norm of life,”...
Despite Putin’s upbeat comments, Russians living in the regions are even in the most successful case balance at the edge of survival: with one household in five in 20 percent of the federal subjects now having only enough money for food...
Ukraine has been placed 84th in the Human Development Index rating, according to the United Nations, a drop from 81st in 2015. The Human Development Index, consisting of 188 countries, is compiled annually and ranks development across the...
Many of the problems Russians now face are rooted in their firmly-held misconceptions about the nature of Russia and Russian national identity. To help them out, Dmitry Olshansky, a columnist for “Komsomolskaya pravda,” identifies...
Comparing social well-being across time or among nations is a notoriously difficult challenge, but the most universally accepted one has to do with the amount of calories a population consumes per day. When caloric intake rises, it is...
The flood of news stories from a country as large, diverse and strange as the Russian Federation often appears to be is far too large for anyone to keep up with. But there needs to be a way to mark those which can’t be discussed in...
Torez in Donetsk Oblast has been occupied for three years, and the social situation is steadily deteriorating, despite the reassurances of the local “DNR government” that they really care for the needy and the locals who’ve suffered...
The flood of news stories from a country as large, diverse and strange as the Russian Federation often appears to be is far too large for anyone to keep up with. But there needs to be a way to mark those which can’t be discussed in...
Free independent media is a necessary condition for democracy to function in any country. Censorship, on the other hand, is rampant in all its forms in dictatorships. These definitions may be relevant in a black and white world; in...
