Editor’s Introduction

In keeping with our policy to publish recurring issues on places in the world undergoing or recently having undergone marked changes (see our issues on China [Volume 73:1, Spring 2006] and South Africa [Volume 72:3, Fall 2005]), this issue looks at current aspects of the Russian state and society during a period of many deep, systemic changes. While the economic crisis dominates the headlines, the issue itself traces the trajectories of a host of other concerns, social and political, in the years since the transition from the Yeltsin era to the Putin and then Medvedev era. It highlights especially the stamp Putin has put on contemporary Russia, and it is these discussions that can help us better understand the new Russia that will be affected by this crisis.