Vinay Shukla is a New Delhi-based journalist and analyst covering developments in Russia and key nations of former the Soviet Union. During his, over four decades of journalistic career, he has covered the developments in ex-USSR from Brezhnev to Putin eras. As Moscow correspondent and bureau chief of India's two premier wire agencies - United News of India (UNI) and Press Trust of India (PTI) for over 25 years he witnessed the churning of the stagnant Soviet regime in the years of Mikhail Gorbachev's "Perestroika" and turmoil in Russia after the Soviet collapse, abrupt transfer of power to President Vladimir Putin by his predecessor Boris Yeltsin at a juncture when the post-Soviet Russia was facing existential threat and disintegration. The idea of this blog is to fill the crucial information gap when the Indian mainstream media is virtually dependent on the 'loaded' Western narrative of Russia, while the internal political debate inside the country remains in the dark due to the language barrier. As a result, the sequel of "cause and consequences" is put upside down. Today a correct reading of Russia is of paramount importance.