Challenging the myth of moral equivalence
The headline: “U.S. investigates potential covert Russian plan to disrupt November elections.” To those unused to this kind of story, I can imagine that headline, from The Post this week,… Read more »
Category: Eurasia
Russia – poster child for electoral authoritarianism
Russia is the poster child for a type of governance termed electoral, or competitive, authoritarianism, analysts Erik C. Nisbet and Elizabeth Stoycheff write for The Washington Post: These autocratic governments… Read more »
Time to act on Azerbaijan
Earlier this year, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan looked like he was softening his authoritarian grip on his country, note David J. Kramer and Richard Kauzlarich. But since President Obama’s… Read more »
Is the U.S. giving up on supporting democracy abroad?
Serious pessimism about democracy’s global fortunes as well as skepticism about the value and wisdom of democracy promotion have gripped Washington, argues Thomas Carothers, vice president for studies at the… Read more »
Russia, Iran and Venezuela ‘may democratize by 2020’
The oil crash of 2014-2015 may trigger a wave of democratization in crude-exporting countries across the world, according to research from Renaissance Capital: The emerging market-focused investment bank based its… Read more »
Proscribing pollster, Kremlin ‘takes control of the narrative’
Russia’s only major independent pollster, the Levada Centre, has been designated as a “foreign agent”, the Russian Justice Ministry said on Monday, two weeks ahead of nationwide parliamentary elections. Foreign… Read more »
EU reform could give democracy promotion a lift
It’s time for a pan-European union that encompasses all of the continent’s sovereign countries at different levels of integration, writes Carnegie Europe analyst Cornelius Adebahr: The most basic integration level… Read more »
Putin Vs. Putin?
Russian police briefly detained opposition figure Ilya Yashin (left) on Thursday, two days after he released a report alleging widespread corruption by President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, the Organized… Read more »
Dictator’s playbook is Karimov’s legacy
Uzbekistan’s authoritarian president, Islam Karimov, leaves a legacy of political and religious repression, Human Rights Watch said today. His death provides a moment for concerned governments to press for concrete… Read more »
Russia: a ‘new authoritarian equilibrium’?
President Putin’s United Russia party represents the interests of organised crime, from the lowest rungs of local government to the highest echelons of power, according to an opposition report. The… Read more »