From the inaugural issue of State, Religion and Church, Christopher Stroop (RANEPA): The Russian Origins of the So-Called Post-Secular Moment: Some Preliminary Observations; and Dmitry Uzlaner (RANEPA): The Pussy Riot Case and the Peculiarities of Russian Post-Secularism. John Cai Benjamin Weaver (Tampere): "Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Keeping Russia Closeted": A Biopolitical Analysis of Non-normative Sexualities in Russia. Outside the Olympics, pressure on gay Russians grows. Meara Sharma interviews Masha Gessen on Putin, anti-queer campaigns, and the “personal catastrophe” of exile. Anne Applebaum reviews Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot by Masha Gessen. Julia Ioffe on Russia, where one day, you criticize the Kremlin, the next you come downstairs to find a 200-pound sculpture of a penis chained to your car. How to understand Russia’s Arctic strategy: After years of viewing the Arctic primarily in military terms, today Russia sees it as potential source of economic growth and development. Thomas Remington on 10 explanations for Russia’s coming fiscal squeeze — and spending more on Sochi than all other winter Olympics combined is only part of one of them. Graeme Robertson and Sam Greene Putin and the creative class: Who loves him, who hates him, and who couldn’t care less? From NYRB, Timothy Snyder on fascism, Russia, and Ukraine. From Crooked Timber, not just geopolitics: Antoaneta Dimitrova on the institutional background to Ukraine’s problems; and Erin Baumann on a problem like Viktor. Is it time for Ukraine to split up? Alexander Motyl thinks the country would be better off if it were partitioned. Sarah Kendzior on the day we pretended to care about Ukraine: What does our addiction to disaster porn say about us?
