The outcome of parliamentary elections will hinge on whether a beleaguered opposition can cut through apathy to land some blows on the ruling party […]
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Many government critics across Russia have been excluded from participating in the upcoming vote […]
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… the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin accelerates its campaign against independent journalism […]
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As September elections approach, COVID-19 takes a mounting toll and wildfires burn across huge swaths of the country …. The Kremlin crackdown on dissenters, civil society, and independent media continues […]
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According to the Levada Center … 28% of Russian respondents said they expect new political protests while 30% anticipated economic protests to erupt […]
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A Russian court has sentenced five former police officers to several years in prison for the 2019 arrest of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov on trumped-up drug charges. … The journalist suffered bruises, cuts, a concussion, and a broken rib […]
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“A growing number of European countries are blocking access to Belarusian airlines. … after Belarus intercepted a commercial flight and removed and arrested Roman Protasevich, an opposition journalist who was on board. … While Western democracies try to sanction Belarus, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, seems to support Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. … Fiona Hill … spoke to NPR’s All Things […]
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Most entrepreneurs say Russia is not safe for business and that court rulings are not independent […]
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… The measure appears aimed at neutralizing the foundation of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, which Russian authorities are seeking to have declared “extremist” ahead of parliamentary elections […]
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Analysts say Moscow’s muted reaction to the diversion to Minsk of a Ryanair flight speaks to the Kremlin’s ambivalent view of the strongman. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Felix Light – May 24, 2021) In the hours after Belarus shocked the world by forcing a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk and arresting prominent opposition […]
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The month marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Academician Andrey Sakharov who developed the hydrogen bomb … then became the leading spokesman for humanism and democracy against the Soviet regime […]
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… The prospect of an invasion, unimaginable for most Europeans, has for the past seven years hung like a specter over this industrial port city located just 100 kilometers from Russian territory […]
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“Imprisoned dissident’s supporters are looking for new ways to maintain his visibility and, they say, keep him alive.” “… Russian authorities are moving to have [Navalny’s] political movement, including his anticorruption foundation, declared an extremist organization, putting it on a par with terrorist groups such as al Qaeda or violent religious cults. The move would choke off funding and provide […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 20, 2021) Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has recovered after he ended a 24-day hunger strike last month demanding adequate medical treatment, a top aide and the head of Russia’s prison service said Thursday. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s best known domestic critic, is serving two-and-a-half years in a penal colony outside Moscow on old […]
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Subject: THE INCONVENIENT SAKHAROV Date: Thu, 20 May 2021 From: DDGlinski <DDGlinski@alumni.harvard.edu> THE INCONVENIENT SAKHAROV His legacy is a moral challenge to the Kremlin, to Western elites and to many of Russia’s oppositionists by Dmitri Glinski Dmitri Daniel Glinski, Ph.D., a member of the council of the Democratic Russia Movement in the early 1990s and of Russia’s Constitutional Consultative Assembly […]
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“With the Kremlin critic jailed and key aides exiled or under house arrest, his supporters are struggling to launch a coherent challenge to President Vladimir Putin.” “Russian authorities are tightening the screws on Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s opposition network, threatening the survival of his political movement as he languishes in jail. His key aides are under house arrest or in […]
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“… As Russia’s chief decision maker, Putin’s personal moods obviously matter. However, more important is the logic of the Russian system of power, with its demand for … great power status. According to this logic, Russia cannot be ignored and must be a member of the global concert of powers. It believes macho bullying is the entry ticket …. Despite […]
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… Young people and new media readers were more likely to view the protests positively, while older age groups and television viewers held more negative attitudes […]
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“Opposition leader says doctors advised him to end the hunger strike because it was threatening his life.” “… Navalny announced Friday that he would end a weekslong hunger strike after he received medical treatment and his doctors warned that continuing to refuse food could kill him. … Navalny … started his hunger strike … to protest poor treatment in prison […]
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Not a day goes by without dire warnings of an imminent Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Such warnings do not come out of the blue […]
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… In the weeks since the demonstrations, local officials … have cracked down on young people … who participated …. Many have found themselves facing expulsion from their educational institutions, serious criminal charges, or … both […]
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“… Putin may have hoped that locking up … political opponent [Navalny] in a harsh [Pokrov] penal colony would finally put him out of sight and out of mind. … [Navalny] has been on a hunger strike … protesting … the appalling conditions of his confinement … deprived … of sleep and … medical care. … [with] a fever and […]
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… The Memorial Human Rights Center in Moscow has recognized the group as political prisoners […]
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The leaders of Russia, France and Germany met by conference call … discuss[ing] coronavirus vaccines, the Iranian nuclear standoff[,] … eastern Ukraine, Libya … Syria [and Navalny] […]
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Jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny says he fears the possibility of solitary confinement in a punishment cell after being accused of minor infractions. … six reprimands within two weeks at the correctional colony where he is being held. […]
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Members of the Public Oversight Commission in the Vladimir Region have met with jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny following … complaints about … declining health and poor medical treatment […]
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The latest attack on Novaya Gazeta is making some of its editors wonder how long it can survive in the country. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Felix Light, Pjotr Sauer – March 25, 2021) On the way to work at Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta last Monday morning, journalists noticed a strong chemical stench on the street outside their central Moscow […]
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(PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo – Maria Lipman – March 19, 2021) Maria Lipman is an affiliate of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES) and the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia) at George Washington University. For about a decade, negative, anti-Western, and anti-liberal ideological trends have been on the rise in […]
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… Skobov says … Putin’s new authoritarianism reflects … worldwide trends and specific Russian realities … a far more dangerous threat to Russia and the West than many imagine … fundamentally different from … authoritarianisms of the past […]
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“How much of a challenge does Alexey Navalny pose to the Russian leader?” “[VIDEO FOLLOWS BELOW:] … [After] Navalny … survived a nerve agent poisoning … [and returned to] Moscow … The Kremlin[] … swiftly sentenced [him] to … prison in a trial condemned internationally as … politically motivated. … [Subsequent] large protests … were swiftly and robustly suppressed … […]
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Russia state news outlet TASS has been reporting that opposition politician Aleksei Navalny is being held in a penitentiary in … Pokrov, though the anti-corruption campaigner’s staff say they have not received official confirmation of his whereabouts […]
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… More than 10,000 … were detained across Russia during the protests, sparking an international outcry over what rights groups and some Western governments called tactics of intimidation and the use of excessive force [… ]
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Although Navalny’s team has long touted ambitions to become a truly national movement in opposition to the rule of longtime authoritarian President Vladimir Putin, the movement has made no inroads in the North Caucasus […]
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“On February 1st, the Jordan Center and the Harriman Institute co-hosted a panel on Alexei Navalny as part of the New York–Russia Public Policy Series. Panelists included Yana Gorokhovskaia, Research Fellow at the Institute of Modern Russia; Pjotr Sauer, Journalist at the Moscow Times; Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, Reader in Russian Politics at King’s College London; and Aleksandra Urman, Postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Communication and […]
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The basic questions at play … are not unique to Ukraine, though they are sharpened by Russia’s aggression in the Donbas and Crimea: Who defines the boundary between disinformation and dissonant opinions? […]
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… First passed in 2012 and expanded …, the law gives authorities the power to brand nongovernmental organizations, human rights groups, news media, and individuals working for organizations deemed to receive foreign funding for political activity as a “foreign agent” […]
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… There is no police cordon to give away the forensic significance of the vacant lot atop Instytutska Street, but investigators believe it may hold important clues to conclusively establish who gunned down dozens of anti-government demonstrators […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Feb. 8, 2021) Grigory Yavlinsky’s diatribe against Aleksey Navalny is “yet another confirmation” that Navalny’s position as leader of the opposition is solidifying, something Yavlinsky, an opposition leader from the 1990s, cannot bear but that is only good news for Navalny, Abbas Gallyamov says. For Russian voters, who attacks someone is often […]
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Subject: Navalny saga: What does it mean? Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2021 From: Andrei Liakhov <gaffriloff@yahoo.co.uk> [About: third-rome.com/en/team/] In its article dated 9 December 2011 New York Times described Navalny as a representative of the movement uniting skinheads and neonazis and mentioned an early Nalavny video where he called for physical elimination of Caucasian militants. I think it is the […]
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“… Putin’s popularity slumped to 53%, according to … state-owned pollster … VTsIOM[] … [after] a brutal crackdown by police on weekend demonstrations called by jailed anti-corruption activist and opposition politician Alexei Navalny. … In the trust poll [Putin] fared less well, with the level of trust falling from 59% in 2017 to 25% in May 2020, the latest data […]
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… Navalny, who has channeled the frustrations of Russians … to rally tens of thousands to protests …, has been on a complex ideological journey throughout his two decades in Russian politics […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jan. 28, 2021) A Moscow court has upheld opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s 30-day pretrial detention on charges of violating probation terms from a previous conviction he says was politically motivated, the Mediazona news website reported Thursday. Navalny was placed in custody until Feb. 15 upon his return from Germany, where he spent months recovering from […]
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Subject: A Good Day for Russia: The Navalny Protests Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2021 From: Sarah Lindemann-Komarova <echosiberia@gmail.com> A Good Day for Russia: The Navalny Protests By Sarah Lindemann-Komarova Sarah Lindemann-Komarova has lived in Siberia since 1992. Was a community development activist for 20 years. (With photos: echosiberia.medium.com/a-good-day-for-russia-the-navalny-protests-e7e437b5cda2) To the great relief of anyone paying attention, there were no big […]
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“… the White House said … it wanted a straight extension of [New START for five years,] a nuclear arms control agreement … fac[ing] imminent expiry …. even as incoming officials have condemned … the Kremlin’s [reputedly] most aggressive anti-western actions in years. … U.S. security services [recently] uncovered a massive cyber-espionage attack on U.S. government computers … blamed on […]
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Putin critic Alexei Navalny is banking on his popularity to bring thousands to the streets … to protest his incarceration on his dramatic return to Russia after months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack […]
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The arrest and detention … of prominent opposition activist … Navalny is threatening to upend Russian politics in an already fraught year that will include parliamentary elections […]
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“Jailed anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny has called on Russians across the country to take to the streets this weekend …. Navalny appears to be hoping for a repeat of the 2013 demonstrations where thousands … gathered outside the Kremlin … to protest against his arrest at that time. … [T]he Kremlin backed down and released him, but […]
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“Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny will be kept in custody until mid-February, a court ruled Monday, following his detention Sunday evening at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. The 44-year-old opposition leader flew back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out on the orders of President Vladimir Putin. In the hearing Monday, […]
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… The detention was met with immediate condemnation from U.S. and European leaders as well as new calls for sanctions against Russia in retaliation […]
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