Category: Russia

Democracy Playbook’s strategy to reverse backsliding, counter autocrats, foster resilience

     

Despite the severity and duration of the authoritarian resurgence and illiberal populist backlash, supporters of liberal democracy can draw on strategies and tactics to strengthen democratic resilience, reverse regression, and… Read more »

Kremlin Winter: How strong is Putin in reality?

     

Barring a few notable exceptions, the consensus among the commentariat over the past few years — at least in the US and Britain — portrays Vladimir Putin as a mastermind… Read more »

Countering Global Kleptocracy: Protests fueling new era of unrest

     

Ten or even 20 years ago, the protests unfolding in Lebanon would have led news bulletins around the world—what is more compelling than large portions of the population of this… Read more »

1989: ‘Ideological lie’ exposed in democracy’s paradoxical moment

     

No empire in history has disintegrated as quickly or as bloodlessly as the Soviet one, in the remarkable year that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989…. Read more »

When foreign meddling backfires, can democrats advance?

     

The authoritarian resurgence threatens to bring back the great power competition that caused so much destruction during the first half of the 20th century, argues Mathew J. Burrows, director of… Read more »

Russia’s New Ideocracy vs. liberal democracy

     

  “Putinism” has long been a hot topic in the West, where the term – describing the policies and practices of Russian President Vladimir Putin – is generally met with… Read more »

Democracy under threat in post-Wall Europe: Spirit of 1989 fighting back

     

The west’s mistake after 1989 was not that we celebrated what happened in central Europe – and subsequently in the Baltic republics and the former Soviet Union – as a… Read more »

Russia’s protest movement: Prospects and problems

     

The eruption of protests on the streets of Moscow in early August was the culmination of demonstrations the previous month after election officials barred opposition candidates from running for City… Read more »

The Soviet Collapse and the Charm of Hindsight: Misplaced optimism for Russian democracy?

     

On leaving Moscow in May 1992, I wrote: “I do not think it is an act of mindless optimism to look forward to a future in which Russia has developed… Read more »