There are signs, too, that even the limited space allowed for speech is shrinking. The deeply conservative church group, Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate, said last week that it intended to use its “influence and good relations” with the state to “protect children from the negative influence” of certain TV programmes that “corrupt moral values.”

Pockets of free speech and creativity remain—just as long as artists don’t attract too wide an audience. Meanwhile, a new generation of writers is starting to emerge, like Chechen war veteran Zakhar Prilepin. The question is whether such writers will shape Russia’s intellectual future—or if it will be determined by a highly conformist mainstream.
-OWEN MATTHEWS & ANNA NEMTSOVA (Newsweek)