Tag Archives: protests

Who you gonna call?

Russia held a painstakingly engineered election to the State Duma in September. The results revealed a lot about the looming legitimacy crisis of Russia’s governing structures, while the aftermath of the election gave a hint about the planned strategy of … Continue reading

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Elections matter

In less than a month, Russia will hold elections to the State Duma. These will be the first legislative elections since the scandalous vote in 2011, and the first elections after Russia’s electoral reforms, with half the seats now filled … Continue reading

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The lonely hegemon

Last week, Nikolay Petrov, an astute Russia-watcher published an interesting article on the website of the European Council on Foreign Relations. In  this, he identified five dynamics that shaped Russian politics these days and declared that Putin’s regime had a … Continue reading

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The bonfire of rationality

Yesterday I was going to post a long and detailed entry about Vladimir Putin’s priority list. About the way priorities were exposed during times of crisis and scarcity. I was going to draw a comparison with my college days in … Continue reading

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A tale of two choices

Oil prices tumble, the Russian economy is in recession, the Russian elite is nervous, but Vladimir Putin is smart enough to avoid the traps that the Soviet Union fell into – in a nutshell, this is the argument of Richard … Continue reading

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Europe’s Game – Part 1

Pro-Russian rebels held illegal elections in the Donbass on 2 November, which Russia first recognised then only “respected”. Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities and NATO reported a serious Russian military build-up in Eastern Ukraine. Vladimir Putin was told off at the G20 … Continue reading

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Putin’s Milosevic moment

As the world is gearing up for the upcoming talks between Vladimir Putin, Petro Poroshenko and Western officials in Minsk next week, all sides seem to pretend that time works for them and stakes are higher on the other side. … Continue reading

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