The relative success of Sunday’s “Writer’s March” through the streets of Moscow — not in terms of overall numbers, perhaps, but as a sterling example of non-violent protest — was cheering, writes Matthew Clayfield.
Articles by Matthew Clayfield 
About Matthew Clayfield
Matthew Clayfield is a journalist, critic, screenwriter and playwright. He worked as a reporter at The Australian from 2008 until 2010, and spent the latter part of that year travelling through the United States, Mexico and Cuba as a freelance foreign correspondent. He will travel to Russia in 2012 to cover the presidential elections.
Website: www.matthewclayfield.com
Email: matthew@matthewclayfield.com
Twitter: @mclayfield
Civil disobedience turns violent in latest Russian uprisings
In Russia the latest round of civil disobedience verged on violence. Some 400 protesters — including Alexey Navalny, Sergei Udaltsov and Boris Nemtsov — were arrested.
Desperate hunger for political fairness in Russia
In fact, Astrakhan does have its fair share of such tragic, near-death figures, and Oleg Shein is first among them, writes Matthew Clayfield, a freelance correspondent working in Russia.
On Putin Lenin in his place, mummy’s the word
Every couple of years, when a few more Communists and Soviet nostalgics have gone to their graves, Russia toys with the idea of finally sending Vladimir Lenin to his, writes Matthew Clayfield, a freelance correspondent in Moscow.
The Russian Spring … oh, the irony of the weather
That the so-called Russian Spring should have come to an end on the most pleasant day of the season thus far, when the weather could not be blamed for poor turnout, was sadly ironic, writes Matthew Clayfield, a freelance correspondent in Moscow.
A chill wind in Pushkinskaya: kick-starting a Russian revolution
Kick-starting Russian civil society is no mean feat. It is is difficult to imagine that Russia’s Moscow-centric, non-systemic opposition can continue to move forward.
Putin wins: what now for Russia’s opposition?
While Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin was widely expected to win yesterday’s presidential poll — which he did in a rout, though not without reports of electoral violations — it is rather more difficult to know what happens next.
Letter from...: Moscow, where they wear white ribbons in their hair
The soldier couldn’t do anything but roll his eyes when Vladimir Putin, who is widely expected to win this weekend’s presidential election, was mentioned.
Letter from...: Siberia, where Lenin and Putin are everywhere
When the Soviet Union fell, not all of the statues fell with it. Every city out here has a Lenin or two. Overcompensating somewhat, Omsk has at least five.
Letter from: Vladivostok and a bridge over troubled …
Seven months out from this year’s APEC conference, the host city is a hive of construction activity, writes Matthew Clayfield, a freelance correspondent in Vladivostok.
Moscow protests: authorities’ gloves may come off
The protests are small enough, isolated enough, and moderate enough in their aims to fizzle out of their own accord.
Crooks, thieves, ex-finance minister and a blogger in Russia
Headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, United Russia has come to be known throughout the country as the party of crooks and thieves.
Putin a comic book hero to stir the Russian spirit
Vladimir Putin has been the subject of everything from pop songs to Chippendale-like wall calendars. Now his mock-heroics have become comic books, in the dangerous
Western journalists missing the real Russian roulette
Moscow-based Western correspondents spent the better part of this year holding out hope that Dmitri Medvedev might remain in the Kremlin for a second term and continue pushing his pseudo-liberal platform.
In Russia, a bumper season for authoritarian self-sabotage
Russian nationalists have been in the news as of late. And there’s the perfect demonstration of the bifurcation of Russian nationalism into its two distinct halves.
In Russia, laughter, even in a paddy wagon, is the best medicine
Putin’s dismantling of Russian democracy was so brazen, and his apparatchiks’ justifications for it so transparently disingenuous, that it was hard not to laugh in disbelief.
Five bloody years as journalists, and freedom of speech, die
The International Freedom of Expression Exchange, which has labelled today the International Day to End Impunity, has profiled one slain journalist on its website every day this month.
CHOGM’s in tents experience comes to an end
Perth’s occupiers are no longer occupying it. They voted on the matter yesterday.
CHOGM: Barnett’s evocation of security on the money, but target is not
People don’t feel that you’re serving and protecting them when you’re taking to their neighbours with a baton.
CHOGM demo a precursor to the big show … in a roundabout way
If the police outnumbered the protesters, it seemed to me, then the media outnumbered the police.
The punitive-minded police state cranks up for CHOGM
The honour of hosting this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting fits in perfectly with the Perth’s idea of itself as a cultural and economic powerhouse.
Death of Gaddafi: we like the crazy ones the best, they’re not as scary
By succeeding to overthrow and, eventually, kill Gadaffi, the Libyan people sent a message to the world.
Blood on the Mexican border squeezed by opportunistic GOP
Rick Perry has a knack for making comments that cause large swathes of the electorate to wince.
Putin apologists line up to justify the ruling tandem’s bitch slap to democracy
Commentators and analysts have been lining up, not only to explain the ruling tandem’s bitch-slap to democracy with Putin’s return to the Kremlin, but also, worse, to justify and excuse it.
Putin’s endorsement a surprise despite its inevitability
One of the more surprising things about Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s endorsement of Vladimir Putin as his successor is how much it seemed to surprise the journalists covering it.
