Is Russia’s ‘new civic activism’ testing Putin’s grip on power?
More people in Russia view the late Brezhnev era of the Soviet Union as “close to the people” than they do President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, according to a survey… Read more »
Category: Russia
‘Never-ending state war against civil society’ meets the new face of Russia’s protests
Russian authorities have threatened protesters in Moscow with lengthy jail sentences in an attempt to dampen an unexpected surge in protest mood before a planned opposition rally, The Guardian reports…. Read more »
‘Ray of Hope in the Haze’? How Europe’s democracies combat foreign interference
Online foreign influence efforts are a threat that is here to stay. At least 24 countries worldwide have been targeted, with Russia being by far the most active aggressor; but… Read more »
Putinism minus Putin?
Police detained nearly 1,400 activists (HT: AP/CFR) who participated in a Saturday protest against a ban on some opposition candidates from running for Moscow’s city council, according to a monitoring… Read more »
Russia’s civil society aims to prevent Putinism after Putin
An important test of civil society in Russia is unfolding on the streets of Moscow. It suggests that despite the authoritarian rule of President Vladimir Putin over nearly two decades,… Read more »
Renewal or revanche? Ukraine election starts a ‘test for benevolent populism’
Preliminary results in Ukraine’s parliamentary election suggest President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party is on course to win big as Ukrainians endorse his reform agenda. The Central Election Commission… Read more »
Protecting the roots of Putin’s power: Kremlin drops all pretense of democracy
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies claims that the Kremlin used disinformation and other tactics in the 2016 presidential election, Reuters reports: In an… Read more »
Russia protests target a system ‘chemically incompatible with democracy’
Police in Moscow detained 39 protesters at a rally calling for opposition candidates to be allowed to run in September’s elections to the Russian capital’s parliament. Opposition leaders cried foul… Read more »
Breaking the populist polarization spiral
Across the world—from the United States to the United Kingdom, from Europe to South Asia and Latin America—politics and media are stuck in a spiral that incentivizes divisive rhetoric, hyper-partisanship,… Read more »
West’s democracies ‘fighting yesterday’s war’ against Russian disinformation & malign influence
The United States has “fallen behind” in addressing the threat of foreign disinformation, but it is not too late to change course and adopt a more proactive approach, a Capitol… Read more »