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In Russia, the winter of 2011-2012 was unusually stormy in the political sense. The results of both the parliamentary and presidential elections were clearly worked out in advance, and everything went as foreseen. President Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party were confirmed in power. But the meetings and demonstrations of tens of thousands of people that took place regularly in Moscow and elsewhere over months placed this order in doubt. Still more significant was the fact that, even after Putin’s win, the political struggle continued. In May, it intensified.

The global political crisis ― a natural outcome of the continuing economic crisis ― finally made it to Russia last month before getting derailed by the country's traditional hibernation in early January.

In Russia, a seven-week-long heatwave has caused giant firestorms to break out across more than 114,000 hectares of the country. At least 48 people have died and more than 400 new fires broke out on August 4 alone, the Kyiv Post said that day. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said on July 30 that “practically everything is burning” in 14 regions of the country, Time said on August 2. In the past, Medvedev has not seemed too concerned about climate change. At last year’s Copenhagen climate conference he bluntly announced that Russia would increase its emissions.

LaborStart.org reports that on June 7 Mikhail Chesalin, chairperson of the local Dockers Union of Russia in Kaliningrad, was savagely stabbed and beaten outside the union office. He was stabbed numerous times in the spine and severely beaten about the head. His assailants left him lying face-down, unconscious, in a pool of blood. Chesalin’s colleagues believe that the attack was orchestrated by Vladimir Kalinichenko, the general director of Kaliningrad Sea Commercial Port, where the dockworkers’ union is currently running an organising campaign. Kalinichenko has tried to break up union events by sending his personal “security” forces, together with local thugs, to spy on and intimidate workers. Visit for more information.

Following the April 23 death of Boris Yeltsin, various polling organisations conducted surveys on how Russians regarded his actions. Asked what they saw as Yeltsin’s main achievement, 33% of respondents answered: “He left office voluntarily in December 1999.” All his other achievements were within the statistical margin of error. The majority of those surveyed did not consider that Russia’s first president had any achievements at all.