This article responds to the Secrets of Transformation multimedia series, a joint project of Bertelsmann Transformation Index and Deutsche Welle.  If you Google ‘freedom of speech in Russia” in English you’ll get over 6 million results about everything from the lack of free speech and human rights violations to the Pussy Riot scandal and much […]

  On February 8, Russia will welcome international athletes to one of the most extravagant events in Russian history– the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Many foreigners imagine Russia as a country of relentless winters, with snowy mountain peaks and lowlands covered with ice, deserted because of low temperatures. Holding the Winter […]

Imagine Red Square in Moscow with the colorful snow-covered onion domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral, the red bricks of the Kremlin, and the centuries-old cobblestones. They have all witnessed the October Revolution, the defeat of Tsarist Russia and countless military parades. Now imagine a giant 30-meter long two storey high […]

  Ever since I was a little girl, my parents and teachers used to tell me that the secret to happiness and excellence lies in education. Good grades were synonymous with prosperity and wealth, they’d drill into me. Yet no one ever told me about life after school. What’s next? […]

“The average salary in Russia is based on the premise that one person earns RUB 2 million while the other 99 earn RUB 8000 per month. So taken together they earn RUB 27,000 on average. Simply put, Petya has 10 apples and Vasya has no apples. So on the average, […]