Andrey Piontkovski

Andrey Piontkovski (1940) is a Russian political scientist, journalist and political activist. A mathematician by training, he works at the Institute of System Analyses of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is a member of the board of the anti-Putin party Yabloko. He lives in Moscow. In 2007 he was taken to court and charged with promoting extremism in his book The Unloved Country. The charge was dropped in 2008.

When will Putin’s patience run out?

Wacław Radziwinowicz:  Russian and international public opinion alike accepts that while civil liberties have been significantly curtailed in the ten years under Vladimir Putin, order has been restored.  A strong machinery effectively carries out orders of the central government.  Would you agree with this assessment? Andrey Piontkovsky:  I agree that liberties have been curtailed. But I don’’t agree with singing the praises of an alleged reform of the state machinery and the restoration of order in the country. That is a lie, a Putin propaganda demagoguery imposed by the Kremlin TV, which is the only source of information for 95% […]