Go through enough Soundcloud rave mixes and you’ll likely come across a thick Slavic accent drooling stereotypical Russian buzzwords – “high track-speed, vodka no limit” – over a hard-bounce bassline. This is хардбас, or hardbass, a bizarre mutation in EDM’s already-contorted family tree that momentarily exploded the ears of Saint Petersburg’s perestroika-era youth at the end of the millennium only to slink into obscurity and, more recently, back out.

In this intriguing investigation, European Staff Writer Faith Martin probes the Estonian struggle with the Russian language. Her linguistic musings take us from a bar in Talinn, down the cobbled streets and towards the Russian border.

An exploration of the image of ‘the mother’ in conflict, how her ordinariness has had an impact on public affairs, and whether she will re-appear in the current discourse battle over Ukraine.

In this fascinating article, Jack Seery investigates President Putin’s relationship with history, and the influence it has on the present.

In his second column, Joe Tresidder explores Russian President Vladimir Putin and his outright rejection of surrender in Ukraine.

Lucy McCulloch interrogates the relationship between warfare and social media in this spirited piece, critiquing the nature of ‘chocolate-box-ified’ solidarity with Ukraine in the West.

With official access to independent news now virtually non-existent for Russians, Barney Crawford explores the complex truth behind Telegram, a hugely popular messaging service that has become something of a digital battleground in Russia’s information war.

Sofia Johanson takes a look at the convoluted history of Fabergé eggs, exploring how they went from epitomising tsarist decadence to being at the centre of international disputes and mysteries even today

In the light of many sports teams severing their ties with Russian money, Barney Crawford argues that modern sporting organisations must move beyond vague value statements and confront the paradox inherent in their ideology.

In the midst of the Russian military threat to Ukraine, Alice Mee reflects on our relationship with news, and our disconcerting ability to look away.

Tom Paterson discusses the fascinating history of clandestine literature in the Soviet Union and its travestied perception in the West.

Anatoly Grablevsky considers the lasting impact of the dissolution of the Soviet Union on the Russian national consciousness and its consequences for politics today.

Anatoly Grablevsky explores the Russian Civil War’s lasting impact on the national consciousness in the first installment of his column ‘The Remains of the Red Day’.