Yahoo News Putinfinity – the future of Russian democracy: inside the 24 January edition of the Guardian Weekly
Vladimir Putin may have signalled that this term as Russia’s president will be his last, but few were in any doubt about the true meaning of last week’s sweeping government reforms: he will not be going anywhere fast. As our Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth explains, the most pressing question in Russia now is not whether Putin will stay in power after 2024, but how he plans to accomplish it. Our big story this week reflects on how the resignations of Dmitry Medvedev and the rest of the Russian cabinet have merely consolidated the power base of the Kremlin’s longest-serving leader since Stalin.
In Angola she is known as “the princess” – but suspicion has long hung over how Isobel dos Santos – daughter of the oil-rich country’s former ruler José Eduardo dos Santos – amassed her $2.2bn fortune. Now, an investigation by the Guardian and journalists in 20 countries, led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, suggests Dos Santos benefited from extraordinary opportunities afforded to her by the government of her father.
America’s tumultuous election year exploded into life this week with the beginning of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. While that plays out, Democratic candidates are making a last push before the Iowa caucus on 3 February, the start of a series of primaries to determine who challenges Trump for the presidency. With Iowa and its neighbours Wisconsin and Michigan full of swing voters likely to prove vital in November’s election, Chris McGreal visits all three states to see what Democrats can do – if anything – to win back those they lost in 2016.
We also feature a farewell to Guardian Cities, who depart with four radical ideas to transform urban living. Then Rose George looks at how Strava changed the way people exercise; Jonathan Jones meets a man who painted his own Sistine Chapel and Jude Rogers tells the story of British female hip-hop with the help of Neneh Cherry.
