Point & Counterpoint

Russia accepts about four million labor migrants annually, most of whom come from three Central Asian states. Less noticeable are internal migrant workers – Russian nationals who move to another place to make money, leaving their families behind. Maria Lipman talks to demographer Yulia Florinskaya about the trends, rules, and practices of labor migration in Russia.

The rise of diversity and individualism in Russian society is undisputed, but these new trends are observed, first and foremost, in the private sphere, consumption, and everyday practices, while the political realm remains “frozen.”

Shrouded in its self-made mythology of security and privacy, Telegram offers a level playing-field to all kinds of actors in Russia, creating a portable private-public sphere where anyone can be anonymous and yet be the darling of thousands of users hungry for every new disclosure and morsel of opinion.

An attempt to demarcate the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia has provoked mass protests in Ingushetia, Russia's smallest region. Unusually for Russia, part of the Ingush elite has joined the protesters. So far, the rallies have been generally peaceful, but organizers and participants alike face a growing threat of harassment and legal prosecution. For the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, the risk is that he will personally incur the Kremlin's anger for failing to maintain stability in his republic.

On October 3, 2018, President Vladimir Putin submitted to the Russian legislature a bill that decriminalized some of the deeds currently described in Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code. The article in question relates to “incitement to hatred,” which it defines as a crime. Alexander Verkhovsky, head of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, explains the possible reasons behind the president's amendments and discusses whether they may be regarded as a softening move.

Many among Ukrainian clergy and its government are anxious to gain full ecclesiastical autonomy for Ukrainian Church. The Ecumenical Patriarch appears willing to grant such status to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. But this issue is ecclesiastically complicated and politically fraught. We offer a view of the ecclesiastical, legal and political aspects of the decision to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church