Putin likes to quote a sentence from Czar Alexander III, who said that Russian has only two allies - the army and the navy. As a citizen, this makes ….

I'm not a prophet or a teacher, I just ask questions. I don't think a writer should be a teacher, but should know how to pose the questions and expla….

The citizen lives in each of us. In the days of Brezhnev, Andropov, Gorbachev and Yeltsin, I was constantly trying to suppress the responsible citize….

The Khodorkovsky case is typical of the "oprichnina" - the system of oppression..

In Russia whenever you encounter a minor official, he lets you know that he is above you and that you depend on him. It is reflected in the superpowe….

In Russia no one is surprised when an official accepts a bribe while at the same time portraying the state as some sacred entity to which the bourgeo….

The worst thing that can happen to Russia is indifference in the West - that is, if it were interested in nothing but oil and gas..

Orthodox churches, autocracy and national traditions are supposed to form a new national ideology in Russia. This would mean that Russia would be ove….

Everyone in Russia must awaken the citizen within himself..

My television teaches me that everything was wonderful in the Soviet Union. According to the programs I watch, the KGB and apparatchiks were angels, ….

The West should be even more vocal in insisting that the Russians respect human rights..

In Russia one can be as pure as can be and still lose everything in a flash and end up in prison..

The word "people" is unpleasant to me. The phrase "Soviet people" was drummed into us from childhood on. I love concrete people, enlightened people w….

As a child I perceived violence as a sort of natural law. In the totalitarian Soviet Union, oppression held everything together. It was the sinister ….

Germans, Frenchmen and Englishmen can say of themselves: "I am the state." I cannot say that. In Russia only the people in the Kremlin can say that. ….

Nothing has changed in Russia since Ivan the Terrible when it comes to the divide between the people and the state. The state demands a sacred willin….

The Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov once said: In a Democracy, portraits of a nation's leader should never exceed the size of a postage stamp. That w….

When I turn on the TV in Russia I see a general calmly claiming that our missiles are ahead of the latest American models by three five-year plans. I….

In Russia there are special people who are permitted to do anything. They are the sacrificial priests of power. Anyone who is not a member of this gr….

In Russia only those who are loyal to the people in power can become wealthy..

I am always surprised when I watch the weather report on German television. First they show the map of Europe and then the camera moves to the right.….