Tag Archives: democratisation

An aging octopus

Posted on September 28, 2013 by

Right after the Moscow mayoral election, Vladimir Putin nominated his aide Tatiana Golikova to head the Court of Audit. The Russian and international press did not care much: after all, Navalny and Roizman occupied the headlines. A couple of weeks … Continue reading →

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Evolutions

Posted on September 16, 2013 by

The mayoral election in Moscow turned out to be a mind-boggling event. It was preceded by such analytic coverage that when it actually happened the outcome was almost disappointing. No large-scale falsifications took place – even the independent election watchdog … Continue reading →

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Instead of a requiem*

Posted on May 11, 2013 by

Many articles, opinion pieces, alas, even political obituaries have been published in the past couple of days on Vladislav Surkov, the former ‘grey cardinal’ of Russian politics who was swiftly dismissed after a public spat with the Investigative Committee over … Continue reading →

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Trial by legitimacy

Posted on April 26, 2013 by

Most Russia-watchers agree that the trial against Alexei Navalny signals the beginning of a new era in Russia. Indeed, there are a lot of similarities with the Khodorkovsky arrest (and trial) in 2003-04, which I will not enumerate in details, … Continue reading →

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Closing holes on the horn of plenty

Posted on January 23, 2013 by

2013 in Russian politics will start with the first two important initiatives of Vladimir Putin, after irresolute fire-fighting in 2012, aimed at taking reasoned steps towards preserving his power in the longer term. The purpose of one of these is … Continue reading →

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2012: not quite there yet

Posted on December 31, 2012 by

Many things that prominent Russia-watchers had expected didn’t happen in 2012. Most notably, the new opposition didn’t achieve a breakthrough in the regions, neither was Dmitry Medvedev dismissed, although in September these seemed all but imminent. Also, Vladimir Putin’s rating … Continue reading →

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Ten questions

Posted on November 29, 2012 by

To put an end to my having neglected the blog for the last month, I intend to come up with a longer and thorougher entry. As a preparation, below are ten questions which I think are the most important and … Continue reading →

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