‘Fortress’ Plan
Stanislav Andreychuk on how the Kremlin is changing laws that regulate Russia’s polity and elections to maintain the status quo
Politics
One year in the life of a consolidated personalist dictatorship
Mikhail Turchenko on why the scope and harshness of repression will only grow
Looking back at Russia in 2021
Ivan Davydov thinks Russia in 2021 will be remembered for its massaged election results, its jailed or exiled opposition figures, the overspilling tensions from protests in Belarus, and a widening exasperation at the government’s clumsy pandemic response
Year 2021 in review: Elections in Russia
Stanislav Andreychuk discusses the results of the 2021 electoral year
The awkward renewal of Russia’s cities
Andras Toth-Czifra explains how so many Russian cities have fallen short of previous visions for urban renewal
All politics is local: Urban electoral coalitions in Russia
Andrei Semenov and Elizaveta Popkova on how the formation of electoral coalitions at the local level defines the vector and format of future electoral battles
Chechnya’s memory wars
Harold Chambers describes how Ramzan Kadyrov’s historical vendettas are threatening the Kremlin and Chechnya’s neighbors
Russia’s (cancelled) ecological referenda
Andras Toth-Czifra reports on recent grassroots attempts to stage regional ecological referenda and looks into how these are affecting power dynamics in Russia
Russia’s regions have regained their political diversity
Stanislav Andreychuk on the results of regional elections in Russia
The Language of a Successful Dictator: How to Remain Popular Without Ending Repressions
Olesya Zakharova on Vladimir Putin’s argumentation schemes