NY Dispatches: Russia and the Council of Europe

Posted on May 20, 2019 by

On Friday news broke that Russia reached an agreement with the Council of Europe, which will result in Russia remaining a member of Europe’s most important human rights organisation. A qualified majority of the CoE’s foreign ministers approved the deal, mediated by France and Germany.  Seven countries, Ukraine, the UK, Poland, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were against the decision and loudly contested it. They were right. 

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NY Dispatches: The protest in Yekaterinburg

Posted on May 16, 2019 by

One of the most remarkable protest actions of the past decade seems to be unfolding in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth largest city this week, where thousands of locals protest the construction of a church on what is now a green area. The developments tell a lot about the present and the future of protest movements in Russia. 

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NY Dispatches: The aftermath of the Superjet crash

Posted on May 9, 2019 by

Russia is looking for answers to questions raised by the deadly crash landing of an Aeroflot jet at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, which killed 41 people on Sunday. The tragedy and how it was handled drew attention to certain uncomfortable issues about Russia as a state.

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NY Dispatches: The dismissal of Mikhail Babich

Posted on May 5, 2019 by

Does the dismissal of Russia’s controversial ambassador in Belarus signal a change in Russia-Belarus relations? It may on the surface, but most likely Mikhail Babich did exactly what was expected of him. 

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Shoigu’s Game

Posted on March 23, 2019 by

One of the underreported stories of the past years in the Western media was how Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu became one of the most visible, most popular and strongest figures in Russian politics. This is perhaps because Shoigu has been present in the upper echelons of Russian politics since the early 1990s, therefore he is hardly an exciting new face like Maxim Oreshkin, the minister for economic development. However, as the Russian political elite – and Vladimir Putin himself – start to ask questions of themselves about 2024 and Putin’s succession, this old fixture of Russian politics may become very important. Here is why. 

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The next big Surkov piece

Posted on February 17, 2019 by

Following the roaring success of the latest article by everyone’s favourite obscure Russian political advisor, the intelligence team at No Yardstick managed to take hold of a draft of Vladislav Surkov’s next treatise on the pathways of Russia, Putin and the West. Below we are publishing an unabridged version translated into English.*

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The rise of the regions

Posted on January 11, 2019 by

The main story of the year 2018 in Russia was the rise, in indignation, of Russia’s regions. While there has been growing tension between Russia’s federal subjects and the federal government for years, 2018 changed the calculation for the Kremlin as local voters organized protests and delivered shocking electoral upsets. This has marked the failure of previous models of dealing with public discontent. The Kremlin is and will be experimenting with new forms of managing the regions, but anything short of stronger self-governance is unlikely to do the trick. Below is a discussion of why the crisis of political responsibility plaguing Russia led to protests and protest votes in the regions and what to expect in 2019.

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