This book by a well-known Russian politician is a collection of articles written and published between April 1998 and May 2005. The articles are divided into six thematic blocks covering, in the author’s words, ‘the causes of the crisis of modern Russian state, the history of democratic traditions and institutions, the peculiarities of Russian political class, the development of Russian federalism and local self-government, international relations, and the main trends of the country’s development under President Putin’.