Tag Archives: moscow

A show of force

According to the official results 78 percent of the 67 percent of Russian citizens who voted in a plebiscite on Vladimir Putin’s constitutional reform – or just over 50 percent of all voters – supported the reform, which will enter … Continue reading

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Vladimir the Cautious

Policies guided by risk-avoidance have allowed Russia to build up significant fiscal reserves before the pandemic hit. But risk-avoidance does seem to serve the country well during the pandemic and it did not neutralize the adverse effects of an overcentralized … Continue reading

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NY Dispatches: the issue of waste management

On Sunday thousands protested in Kotlas, a town of only 60 thousand in Russia’s Northern Arkhangelsk oblast against a landfill near the Shies station between Arkhangelsk and the Komi Republic, which is planned to absorb 46 million tons of waste … Continue reading

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NY Dispatches: crackdown on Navalny

Recent weeks saw the Russian authorities conducting an unprecedented crackdown on Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which included labeling it as a “foreign agent”. Below I am trying to answer the questions of what triggered this crackdown and whether the goal … Continue reading

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A competitive succession

When two close Putin associates give strangely identical but ideologically divergent interviews, suddenly all the talk is about the Kremlin’s towers and Putin’s succession, instead of the September regional elections, which the Kremlin would like to leave behind as soon … Continue reading

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NY Dispatches: the limits of smart voting

Russia held local and regional elections on Sunday. While in Moscow where the election was preceded by weeks of protests over disqualified opposition candidates and police brutality, United Russia lost one-third of its deputies in the Municipal Assembly (including a … Continue reading

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NY Dispatches: A single day of voting

On 8 September, in a little less than two weeks elections are going to be held across Russia with 16 regions electing governors and 12 regions (13 if you count the occupied Crimea) electing legislative assemblies. In recent weeks, both … Continue reading

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