One year in the life of a consolidated personalist dictatorship
Mikhail Turchenko on why the scope and harshness of repression will only grow
Political actors
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
Chechnya’s memory wars
Harold Chambers describes how Ramzan Kadyrov’s historical vendettas are threatening the Kremlin and Chechnya’s neighbors
The Language of a Successful Dictator: How to Remain Popular Without Ending Repressions
Olesya Zakharova on Vladimir Putin’s argumentation schemes
The Folly of Shoigu’s New Siberian Cities
Nick Trickett questions why the Russian government is thinking about building new Siberian cities, when there is still plenty of work to do in developing the existing ones
Do Digital Technologies Serve People or Autocrats?
Gulnaz Sharafutdinova reports on how Russia’s authorities are investing heavily into a ‘smart city’ agenda which could enable a slice of better governance
Who are Navalny’s Digital Dissidents?
Andrei Semenov and Jan Matti Dollbaum paint a socio-political portrait of Alexey Navalny’s online followers
Mishustin and the Politics of Stagflation
Nick Trickett believes Russia’s government is fighting a losing battle against inflation
Navalny groups threatened with ‘extremist’ label
Grigorii Golosov reviews the legal implications of the government’s ‘extremist’ label for Alexey Navalny’s supporters
Foolproofing Putinism
Fabian Burkhardt on why Mikhail Mishustin might be one of the most ambitious Prime Ministers in recent Russian history
Alexei Navalny and his potential supporters
Stepan Goncharov investigates the levels of support and opposition to Alexei Navalny across Russia