Dear David,

Your readers may be interested to hear of a new online publication about Russia which we are just launching.

It is a collaboration between two independent e-zines: the Russian website www.polit.ru and the British http://www.opendemocracy.net We will be publishing articles, essays and interviews by authoritative writers from Russia and the Western world. The material appears simultaneously in both Russian and English.

The first issue, which is just out, focuses on the Russian presidential transition. It features Dmitri Trenin, Alexei Makarkin and Dmitri Furman from the Russian side, and Henry Hale and Peter Riddell from the West. Next week's cluster of articles, timed to coincide with Dmitri Medvedev's trip to Bejing, will deal with the China-Russia relationship.

The articles in English can be found at www.opendemocracy.net/russia. In Russian they can be found at www.polit.ru

We would like our articles to generate discussion, and we hope that some of your readers will want to engage in debate.

To give you some idea of our project we enclose the introductory notes published by opendemocracy and polit.ru.

Susan Richards
Zygmunt Dzieciolowski

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Polit.ru and openDemocracy.net, two publications distinguished by their independence of mind, are embarking on an ambitious collaboration. Communication between the West and Russia has too often been dogged by ignorance, intellectual laziness, cultural stereotypes or ideology. Publishing in Russian and English, we are inviting the most distinguished commentators from Russia and the rest of the world to engage with one another directly. We will introduce talented new writers and explore unexpected perspectives on life a long way from the pinnacles of power.

One of Dmitry Medvedev's first pronouncements in his new role as President was about freedom of speech. At Polit.ru, which is the oldest Russian socio-political website,we have a name for the new project we are launching in conjunction with the well-known international website Open Democracy. It is the Freedom of Institutions. There is good reason for this. We want to make it clear that we believe the question of freedom to be crucial in today's world. And the establishment of institutions is a key part of the answer.

Richard Rorty has pointed out that there is no longer any point in trying to justify one or other political system in philosophical terms. That only made sense when there were few success stories among political systems. And, I would add, when there was as yet no recognition of the absolute impossibility that one 'complete', logically elegant philosophical system could triumph over another.

The battle for freedom has been conducted by various means. But history demonstrates that if one relies on force, freedom rarely lasts. It is succeeded by unfreedom, then further upheavals. At best, these tend to subside.

A ruler's good intentions are no guarantee of freedom. Nor are the slogans under which they gain power on the crest of a wave. Nor can democracy per se guarantee it, at least not when seen in purely electoral terms. Democracy is more likely to spring from freedom (as happened in countries with a deep-rooted liberal tradition) than freedom from democracy.

The only truly free societies are those with working institutions that produce this freedom. What should these institutions be? How can they be cultivated from the top? And how can they emerge from below, as happens in societies which are not free, or not quite free? What is the process whereby these institutions emerge in today's Russia and in other countries? How do these institutions produce freedom in the countries where they already exist? These are the issues of particular interest to our project.

Why a joint project?

Firstly, because comparative analysis helps us understand both at a general and at a particular level the national and cultural features of processes and situations. The problems faced by different societies have much in common, and we should make every effort to address them.

Secondly, just as stereoscopic vision is the result of two eyes working together, so we can achieve a more multi-dimensional view of social reality by studying it with the help of different analytical traditions and viewpoints.

It is no accident that most of the articles in the first issue are about the political changes taking place in Russia today. This is the topic uppermost on our minds, both in Russia and in leading countries across the world. And this is the very topic that breeds the most dismal judgments, ones which show a poor grasp of the situation and of the real limitations on the corridor of opportunities.

Both on Polit.ru and openDemocracy we will be publishing special issues once a month which focus on one main topic. But life is always richer than our plans for it, and we will also be publishing pieces which fall outside this remit. We will, and this is crucial to the project, be hosting discussions on the issues raised.

Polit.ru is a news and analysis website launched in 1998, when the Russian audience for the internet was small and therefore more 'professional'. The website has retained its 'expert' character into the present era, when the internet audience has grown, and there are many more online publications.

From the start, the objectives of Polit.ru were social rather than political. We were not particularly interested in politics, and we did not intend to write political journalism. What interested us was trying to present political developments as part of living history and culture, to focus on the things that really affect people's lives, rather than being players in the information market.

Polit.ru seeks to present information in many forms -from news events, through news stories, documents, analysis, opinions, research, discussions and lectures; to subject it to expert interpretation, our own and that of outside opinion, authorities both established and new.

The synergy of our online activities and live events is crucial for Polit.ru's operation. We work in collaboration with the publishers OGI and with the intellectual clubs Bilingua and Neutral Territory.