After Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cruised around the Far East in a Lada Kalina for 11 days, political pundits claimed that it was the start of his presidential campaign. But what is the point of conducting an election campaign in a country that has no real elections?

A ruble exchange-rate crisis in two or three years is not inevitable, but if inflation is allowed to accelerate and real interest rates — adjusting for the effects of inflation — become negative again, an exchange-rate crisis just becomes a question of time.

What is the future of the much-famed “reset” in U.S.-Russian relations? The previous political season between the two countries ended on a low note because of the spy scandal. This new season started with Vladimir Putin’s recent remarks that so far he does not see any reset in relations.

Amid all of the talk of modernization, the Russian economy is gradually changing, but it is doing so despite government modernization policies and programs, not because of them. A host of major projects carried out without any assistance from the state testifies to this idea.

Regional elections are only a month away, and the outcome will be crucial for both United Russia and the sanctioned opposition. In the last regional elections, United Russia lost 10 to 15 percentage points, along with its majority in many legislatures. Now it must prove that it can win votes under much more difficult conditions.

Bankers are still social pariahs. Thus, as banks return to profitability, politicians in North America and Europe have begun to talk again about new taxes that would skim off profit to benefit taxpayers, whose support kept banks in business at the height of the crisis.

The blogosphere is having a big impact on the way Russians think: They are starting to give up the flawed belief that the government should solve their problems, and they are taking charge of their own affairs.

Though published in 1945, “Animal Farm” satirizes Soviet history through World War II but also takes it far into the future. With extraordinary prescience, George Orwell painted a picture of post-Communist Russia that is extremely accurate even for our own times.

It is hard to see a net political gain for President Dmitry Medvedev from his awkward decision to temporarily halt the construction of a federal highway through the Khimki forest.

Russia has done little to reduce its high number of fake diplomas ― but at the same time it requires foreigners to prove that their degrees are valid before they can get a work permit.