An east-west divide deeper than the cold war: what I saw on my summer trip to Russia

By Matthew Alford, Lecturer in the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies, University of Bath

I went to Moscow this summer on a trip that was as awkward as it was illuminating. I left feeling Russia is not just a changed country, but a separate civilisation.

As one academic I met there explained: “Russia is not a fortress. Maybe as the Soviet Union, it was. But we are very open to the rest of the world – this time it’s the west that has drawn the iron curtain.”

Due to western sanctions over the war in Ukraine,…

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