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People often ask me what lies ahead for Russia. This question always surprises me. It suggests that people think historians are part prophet, as if knowing a lot about the past means you can predict the future.

“Video surveillance – it is not idle curiosity, for lying on the couch to watch some kind of movie. There are theaters and television for that, but this [observance of elections] is major work. If you want [to observe elections], if you are interested, an active citizen, then you’re going to need to work a bit for it.”

– Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Committee, on election monitoring.

How one sparsely-populated region in Russia's Far East became a hotbed of protests in 2020.

Russia's election commission performed a "large-scale investigation" into tree stumps used as polling places. Only (?) three cases were found.

A pensioner was fined for highlighting voter fraud in Russia's recent round of constitutional amendments.

I have slept very little the past two weeks, and I have done very little to prepare for my classes. My students have tired of asking when I will correct their papers, and piles of their notebooks are gradually filling up my room. There is nothing to eat in the house; I have no had any time to get to the store. I am completely overcome by my work in “Citizen Observer"...

"The crowds gathered from three different directions.  Every route to the square was controlled by police and troops.  I had never seen such numbers of armed forces before; it was like a movie about civil war." Victor is a 21-year-old student in Moscow. In this guest post, he gives us a participant's account of the December 10 demonstration.

Quite often, Russian reality is best illuminated with a joke. 

A couple of journalists are quizzing a candidate: “Why do you want to get elected?”

“Just look what is going on in the corridors of power: officials are awash in debauchery, theft, corruption!”