Mystery of missing tycoon shows how how Latvia – a small Baltic nation of 2 million people on the doorstep of Russia – has become a playground for Russian interests: business, political and, above all, criminal. But many see evidence of Russian soft power at work.

“Culture is an axis of diplomacy that was practiced by any number of autocratic regimes, Hitler as well as Stalin,” said Lorraine de Meaux...
Russian officials have even suggested that Mr. Depardieu’s flight toward Russia’s flat income tax rate of 13 percent may start a trend. “The distinctiveness of our tax system is poorly known about in the West,” a deputy prime minister, Dmitri O. Rogozin, wrote...

The government is set to approve plans for a "soft power" campaign ordered by President Vladimir Putin last July to improve Russia's image abroad, a news report said Wednesday. The official plan for the project covers 2013-2015 and involves a range of cultural initiatives and events for humanitarian cooperation, Kommersant reported, citing a copy of the plan.

Bringing students together from across the globe, the 12th edition of International Children's Festival of Performing Arts (ICFPC) was initiated at Ryan International School, Ludhiana, on Tuesday. As a part of the Russian cultural exchange programme, around 18 students from Russia came to India under the theme "One World of Children" and participated in a month-long festival.

Masterpieces by Rembrandt, Poussin and Velazquez are among a collection of over 40 works from the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg which will travel to Britain for a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at one of this country’s finest historic houses, Houghton in Norfolk.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday said that promoting relations with Russia is a priority for Chinese diplomacy as he met with a Russian delegation in Beijing.
Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, told Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev that China will continue to push forward a bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.

As 2012 draws to a close and turmoil brews across the Middle East and elsewhere, there's no doubt that we are a long way from the golden age of cultural diplomacy. Gone are the days when the U.S. State Department sent the likes of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington jetting around the world to expose hundreds of thousands to America's great homegrown art forms.

Regimes like Putin's can't survive on repression alone. To be stable and successful, they also need, for lack of a better term, soft power -- the ability to win not just the public's obedience, but also its consent; to rule not just through fear, but also through inspiration. During Putin's first stint as president, from 2000-2008, the Kremlin excelled at this. It doesn't anymore.