The opening of the main contemporary art exhibition this year was accompanied by noisy protest actions. But the Biennale will run through the end of November, and there is certainly plenty to see here besides the closed doors of the notoriously scandalous Russian pavilion.

The events of May 2026 have shown a significant shift in the balance of power on the fronts of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In fact, the two sides have reached parity. Yet, at the start of the full-scale war in 2022, Vladimir Putin did not consider Ukraine a significant opponent at all.

At the Russian Antiwar Committee conference held last week in Strasbourg, the former Russian prime minister debated with columnist Tatyana Rybakova about the prospects for the Russian economy in the fifth year of the war in Ukraine. We publish the most interesting parts of their conversation

The film about Russia during the «special military operation» is based on Claude Chabrol’s «The Unfaithful Wife,» released in 1969. The key elements seem the same — a jealous husband, a disappointed wife, the difficulties of disposing of a body — but this is just the skeleton onto which Zvyagintsev has layered distinctly Russian flesh and muscle.