Thousands of ethnic Russians convert to Islam annually, according to the members of the Mufti Council of Russia. Concerned with the idea of protection of the Russian (meaning – Orthodox) identity, the government launched a system of persecution of the converts, branding them as terrorists. Many of them flee, but the Russian secret services try to hunt them down even abroad, and foreign countries treat them with suspicion.
Due to its extreme northerly location Murmansk experiences an annual 40-day long polar night from 3 December to 11 January. During this period, when the sun remains constantly below the horizon, a semi-twilight occurs each day for only a few hours around noon. For the rest of the time, the city is wrapped up in darkness.
A soldier was proudly accompanying me, the holder of the “friendly” Russian press-card in the Damascus suburb of Sayyidah Zaynab that hosts one of the most important Shia shrines. He told me over lunch he was very happy about Russia becoming “a great, mighty country again”.
Driving up to the Barents seashore feels like heading to the middle of nowhere. Ironically, in winter the drive is much smoother and twice faster — flattened snow compensates 40 km of unpaved road.
The photographer Olga Kravets started working in Chechnya in 2009 with a collaborative project exploring the aftermath of war in its capital. In 2013 she decided to go beyond the city boundaries and show the whole republic under the ubiquitous power of its authoritarian leader
It was a very strange day in Moscow, May 6 2012. I came to photograph the opposition “rally of millions” in downtown Moscow. It was happening just a day before Putin’s come back to power and nobody really expected any police violence.