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Putin’s Labyrinth: Career Stagnation in Russia’s Corridors of Power
After the parliamentarian elections this time the usual upward mobility switches in the elite are conspicuously absent. The path of career progression within the power vertical has stopped being predictable.Putin stopped the carroussel. It is total stagnation. This never bodes well in politics. -
Viktor Babariko from jail: The only easy path is the path to slavery
Viktor Babariko, ex-candidate for president of Belarus and former top manager of Belgazprombank, has been behind bars for almost 8 months. On the eve of his trial, that started on 17 February, Deutsche Welle was able to obtain written answers from prison to questions on the future of Belarus, his presidential ambitions and his meeting with Lukashenko in the KGB jail. -
Lukashenka will be re-elected, but at what price?
The social economic circumstances for the presidential elections in Belarus are extremely unfavourable for the authorities. Recession, decline in living standards and no reforms in sight, have caused popular protests and a wish for change. The risk of the regime falling, however, is still pretty low. Re-elected, a weakened president Lukashenka, may be forced to resort to increased Russian subsidies and thus severely limit the sovereignty of his country -
United Russia’s Rehabilitation Means a Tightening of the Screws
Russia's ruling party United Russia has lost most of its credibility by now, after the highly impopular pension reform and the
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Ukraine is pregnant with its own version of Putinism
On March 31 Ukrainians will vote for a new president. It looks like a run-off between Petro Poroshenko and TV comedian Volodymir Zelensky. This 'against-all' candidate with no political experience shows that a large chunk of the electorate is fed up with Poroshenko's Putinism-lite. The West prefers to neglect these signs, says journalist Leonid Ragozin. -
The Twilight of Putin’s Political Monopoly?
Political fragmentation, fights between the elites and a total absence of a positive domestic agenda. Political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya signals three key domestic risks of the year 2019 for those in power. -
‘Everyone Likes Naturalness and Sincerity’: Sincerity Rhetoric in Contemporary Political Discourse in Russia
In the Russian presidential election of 2018, the concept of sincerity played a central role in the political language of various candidates. Putin, Sobchak, and Navalny, all employed the notion of sincerity as a tool for political legitimization and projected a negative image of hypocrisy onto a constitutive ‘Other’. This rhetoric can pose a significant threat to deliberative democracy, writes Barbara Roggeveen in her BA-thesis. -
Protest vote disturbs Kremlin's control over regions
The results of recent regional elections were for United Russia the worst since elections for regional leaders were introduced in
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Kremlin's puzzle: how to frame Putin's re-election?
This autumn marks the start of an insecure election year in Russia. On 18 march 2018 Putin will most likely be re-elected for
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American obsession with Russia helps Putin's reelection
The allegations against Russia interfering in the American elections are still murky. After the elections contacts between Russian
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Russian model helps extreme right to become mainstream
In March the French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen (FN) visited the Duma in Moscow, looking for financial support for her
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Hacking Western democracy
President Obama struck back at Russia on December 29 for its alleged cyber-attacks, designed to influence the 2016 election. After
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Russians can make a difference in Sunday's elections: by staying at home
The Duma is a rubber stamp parliament and the elections of September 18 are rigged. Still there is one thing the Kremlin is worried about: what
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Молодежь в России: добровольно несвободнa
Почему Путин даже среди русской молодежи крайне популярный? Культурный критик Андрей Архангельский объясняет их двойную мораль.
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The Russian Protest Movement: Not Dead, Not Alive, Just Different
by Yekaterina Schulmann
There are two widespread misconceptions about protest activity in Russia. The first is that, for
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