In early February 2026, the Main State Expert Review Board of the Russian Federation issued a positive opinion on the project to build a 4,000-capacity pre-trial detention centre in the Solnechnogorsk urban district of the Moscow region. The customer for the construction is the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) of Russia, and funding will be provided…
Category: Research Centre
“No Face, No Responsibility? International Standards for Identifying Officials and the Practice of Mobilisation Detentions
In contemporary Ukrainian public discourse, the issue of actual detentions and the use of physical force by employees of territorial recruitment and social support centers (hereinafter referred to as TRC) against men in the process of mobilisation measures is increasingly being raised. As evidenced by numerous videos recorded by eyewitnesses, TRC employees systematically conceal their…
The Kremlin’s Trojan Horse: How the Cult of ‘Afghans’ Works for Russia. Why Preserving the Soviet ‘Day of Glory’ in Ukraine is Not a Tribute to Memory But a Tool of Hybrid Warfare
Russia is methodically destroying Ukrainian cities, killing children, and employing scorched earth tactics. And on this very day, Ukraine officially honours those who participated in combat operations on the territory of other states. That is, they honour those who did exactly what Russia is doing today: invaded foreign territory, killed, burned, and occupied. Let’s call…
The Penal Colony Empire: The Uniqueness of the Russian Model of Colonialism
When discussing the nature of the modern Russian empire, it is necessary to take into account a number of theses that deserve the status of methodological axioms for analysing this state phenomenon. These provisions allow us to highlight the specificity of the Russian model of imperialism and colonialism, which differs qualitatively from both classical European…
The Concept of ‘Russkiy Mir’ in the Kremlin’s Official Position (Analysis of the Press Conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation)
The concept of the ‘Russian World’ (Russian: ‘Русский мир’) is a key ideologeme of contemporary Russian foreign policy, justifying Moscow’s imperial claims in the post-Soviet space. Although the term is not directly mentioned in the transcript of the press conference of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (January 2026), its conceptual elements permeate the entire speech…
The Carceral Nature of Russian Statehood: a Critical Analysis of Contemporary Russian Society
The main and most common, yet most dangerous mistake made by most Western researchers, analysts, and politicians in understanding Russian society and the Russian state is the artificial opposition of the people to the authorities, the people to the regime, and the people to the political elites. According to this approach, it is emphasised that…
Diplomacy ‘by Concepts’: When Prison Slang Became the Official Language of Russian Diplomacy
22 January 2026, a very important, albeit traditional, event took place at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, namely a press conference by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Russian diplomacy in 2025. Among other things, amid the undisguised aggression in the words of the head of the…
‘Oisya, You, Oisya,’ or What Taras Shevchenko Warned About
Today, many people know the Cossack dance song set to the melody of the Caucasian lezginka ‘Oisya, ty, oisya’ (Oisya, You, Oisya). It is also called ‘the Cossack prayer.’ The song was probably written during the Caucasian War of the 19th century. It should be noted that the Caucasian War was a colonial war waged…
The Preserved Empire: On the Pseudo-Opposition as an Alternative Imperial Project
One of the most dangerous illusions held by some of Ukrainians and the international community is the belief in the existence of a ‘good Russia’ that supposedly opposes Putin’s regime and is ready to become a partner in building a just world after its fall, while preserving its colonial essence and imperial orientation. Mikhail Khodorkovsky,…
Crimes Committed with Firearms and Explosives During Wartime: Statistical Overview for 2013–2025
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 created conditions that might reasonably be expected to produce a dramatic surge in firearm-related crime. The massive influx of weapons, breakdown of administrative controls in certain territories, displacement of millions of civilians, and general wartime disruption would logically correlate with increased illegal firearms usage. However, Ukrainian…