The Latest Breaking News from Mikhail Shishkin

The Navalny I knew was naive about Putin’s Russia, but he gave us hope. We are his hope now

He would have made a good president, but the Russia in which that could have happened no longer exists, says novelist Mikhail Shishkin

The Guardian - UK · Feb 19, 2024

As the Ukraine war grinds on, Russia is becoming a cultural wasteland

Putin once saw advantage in giving writers a degree of freedom, even to be critical. Those days are long gone, and Russia’s artists are fleeing, says writer William Fear

The Guardian - UK · May 8, 2023

Mikhail Shishkin: ‘The main enemy of Russian culture is the Russian regime’

The revered Russian writer and Putin critic on how the war in Ukraine has divided his nation, and why culture is the only cure

The Guardian - UK · Apr 2, 2023

Neither Nato nor Ukraine can de-Putinise Russia. We Russians must do it ourselves

A new, democratic Russia is impossible without a change of national mindset – and an acknowledgment of national guilt, says novelist Mikhail Shishkin

The Guardian - UK · Mar 28, 2022

My dear Russians – the Ukrainians are fighting Putin’s army for their freedom, and ours

The real Russia is a country of literature and music, not the bombardment of children, says Russian novelist Mikhail Shishkin

The Guardian - UK · Mar 7, 2022