Russia
The dark, gritty underbelly of the post-Soviet east
Absurd in Abkhazia — After finding his first camera in a skip, Petr Barabakaa has been photographing the streets as only a skater could: fleeting and accident prone.
Written by: Ellie Howard
The queer Russian couples refusing to apologise for their love
We are together — Photographer Anna Milokumova meets queer couples in Russia who exist and resist in a political landscape keen to see them fail.
Written by: Biju Belinky
A photographer's epic quest through the former USSR
Couchsurfing along the fringe — Nomadic photographer Gianluca Pardelli hitched his way around the former Soviet Union, searching for identity in a cultural vacuum.
Written by: Cian Traynor
LGBT Londoners stand with tortured gay men in Chechnya
'Hands off the gays' — Queer people and their allies descended on the Russian embassy in London last night after it was reported that gay men in Chechnya are being rounded up and killed.
Written by: Michael Segalov
The Russia you'll never see on postcards...
Street life, St. Petersburg-style — Award-winning photographer Alexander Petrosyan has spent decades discovering what makes his home town tick: the everyday comedy and drama of a city built on contradictions.
Written by: Cian Traynor
Revisiting the wreckage of Russia’s Krokodil epidemic three years on
Krokodil’s toxic legacy — Photographer Emanuele Satolli documented the height of the Krokodil epidemic in 2013. Three years later, he returned to Yekaterinburg to survey the damage.
Written by: Alex King
Pussy Riot are back with a song to celebrate the vagina
Patriarchy is boring — Russian punk activists Pussy Riot release a new song that hails the vagina in all it’s glory at a crucial time in global politics.
Written by: Ella Guthrie
The story of the Russian activist who nailed his scrotum to Red Square
Flames of resistance — Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova threw down a gauntlet in 2012, but it’s been picked up by flame-throwing performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky. The Moscow City Court will this week consider an appeal against his sentence, after he was found guilty of setting fire to the Moscow headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB). Huck headed to Moscow to hear Pyotr’s story in person, while he sat in prison, from the two people who best understand his elaborately defiant acts.
Written by: Natalia Antonova
Surfin’ USSR: The troublesome evolution of skateboarding in Russia
This is our revolution — The Cold War may have initially stagnated skateboarding in Russia but, over time, it encouraged Russian skaters to develop a style and aesthetic that is totally unique from its American roots. This is a first-person account of how the contemporary generation is beginning to capture the world’s imagination.
Written by: Kirill Korobkov
The wild lives of teenagers in Northern Russia
Igor Samolet: Be Happy — A chance encounter with a group of reckless kids helped Russian photographer Igor Samolet rekindle his wild youth.
Written by: Interview: Gemma Padley