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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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, June 2, 2021) Twenty-five years ago, Russia had its last presidential election in which the outcome was not ordained. But after Boris Yeltsin’s orchestrated victory, Konstantin von Eggert says, the country entered yet another non-democratic era in which the rise of someone like Vladimir Putin was inevitable. In that sense, the independent […]
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… The forum was staged despite Russia recording around 9,000 new coronavirus infections a day […]
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… The measure appears to be a thinly veiled attempt at neutralizing Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which the authorities are seeking to have declared an “extremist” group ahead of parliamentary elections […]
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Most parties … participating in the upcoming Duma and regional legislative assembly elections are now including environmentalists in their list of candidates […]
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The crackdown is being seen as a sign that the Kremlin is playing closer attention to local power structures ahead of fall elections […]
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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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… The company filed a lawsuit April 23 against Roskomnadzor in the Moscow Arbitration Court […]
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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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(Interfax – May 19, 2021) Russia’s Constitutional Court has ruled that a series of daily single-person protests do not require official authorisation, upholding the complaint of a woman facing administrative charges for holding such demonstrations. The court on 19 May ruled unconstitutional the view that such a series of single protests can be regarded as a single public event that […]
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MOSCOW. May 19 (Interfax) – Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has called on the global community to ensure access to vaccines for the novel coronavirus infection to everyone and to stop practicing “vaccine nationalism.” “It is necessary to in the near future agree on the rules for recognizing vaccines for the purpose of cross-border travel and ensure general […]
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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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… [Putin] seemed to take that approach a step further … to suggest that the Soviet Union essentially defeated Hitler on its own […]
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“A Moscow court … restricted … an organization founded by … Navalny, pending a decision on whether it and his offices across Russia should be outlawed as extremist groups. … another step in the sweeping crackdown on Navalny, his allies and his political infrastructure. The Moscow prosecutor’s office … [has] petitioned the court to label the foundation and Navalny’s network […]
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… Russia’s coronavirus statistics have been heavily questioned since the start of the pandemic […]
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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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Confrontation with the west after the annexation of Crimea, the resulting sanctions and the Kremlin’s focus on macroeconomic stability at the expense of prosperity have entrenched a stagnation […]
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Film director Vitaly Mansky … was in the news throughout the festival in Moscow and St. Petersburg as he was closed down by the authorities and attacked by pro-Kremlin activists […]
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… Americans are still more inclined to accept divorce than Russians are. Only 36 percent of Russians consider it morally acceptable […]
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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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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 14, 2021) President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday that he has received his second Covid-19 vaccine shot with one of Russia’s domestically developed jabs and that he hoped Russians would follow his example. Putin, 68, received his first dose on March 23. “I want to inform you that right now, before entering this room, I […]
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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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… Russia’s government estimates … the country’s population decline hit a 15-year high in 2020, driven by record-setting excess deaths and outmigration linked to Covid-19 border closures […]
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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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“… Putin said … he … experienced minor side effects from the coronavirus vaccine … Interfax … reported, citing a TV interview. [According to Putin, symptoms included] ‘… slight pain in [his] muscles[,] … [but his] temperature was normal,’ …. [with] an uncomfortable feeling on the [injection] site …. Putin did not reveal which of three Russian vaccines he [received] […]
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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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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, March 26, 2021) Vladimir Putin’s continued high ratings and the absence of any mass willingness to protest against him reflect less unqualified support for his person and policies than the absence of alternative leaders and the continuing impact of traditional Russian attitudes about a national leader, Lev Gudkov says. Even Russians who […]
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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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Fourteen percent of [St. Petersburg respondents] said they would vote for … Duma candidates … [that] Navalny suggests … 25 percent … said they don’t like any of the parties […]
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… [Navalny’s supporters] have been systematically targeted with raids, criminal charges, and police beatings …. [H]is team … announced … 10 new regional offices to add to its Russia-wide network … [to] investigate local corruption, organize protests, and contest elections […]
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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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“… [Russia’s] central bank expects the economy to return to pre-crisis levels before the end of [2021] … central bank [governor] Elvira Nabiullina, said … after a surprise 25-basis-point rate increase, brought about by rising inflation and geopolitical risks. … [The government’s] Rosstat[] said … real wages … rose 0.1% year-on-year in January. … Economic growth and … recovery in […]
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“The same factors that led up to his incursion into Ukraine are in place again, including domestic protests, a struggling economy and a desire for glory” “… [O]n the seventh anniversary of the Crimean Anschluss, many of the same vectors that produced the invasion of Ukraine are here again. … There are at least two reasons for Putin to be […]
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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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The Kremlin’s efforts to block social media to protect itself are proving counterproductive, Russian observers say […]
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“… For Russians … oppos[ing] Putin, Navalny’s imprisonment represents a bellwether moment … long expected and feared. … [A] forceful, sweeping effort to tighten political freedoms … signposts a new era for a regime … extending into its third decade. … Putin’s rule … propped up first by economic prosperity … then … pugnacious patriotism, now pivot[s] to repression as […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, March 5, 2021) The “We Speak Russian” blog suggests younger Russians reject both a Russia modeled on the past as offered by “state father” Putin and “the beautiful Russia of the future” modeled on an ideological vision as offered by Aleksey Navalny. Instead, the rising generation wants “a normal Russia” (echo.msk.ru/blog/govorimporusski/2800326-echo/). Young […]
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… Navalny’s team has announced plans to open offices in 10 cities where it believes the ruling United Russia party is most vulnerable […]
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“Russians consider rising prices the main problem facing their society, according to survey data from the independent Levada Center shared with Meduza. This opinion was held by 58 percent of survey respondents. … Those surveyed also named poverty (40 percent), corruption (39 percent), and rising unemployment (36 percent) as important issues. … Bloomberg listed Russia among ‘five hotspots’ where rising […]
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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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More Russians are opposed to … Putin’s re-election today than at any other point since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, an independent survey said […]
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(Article text ©2021 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Dan Peleschuk – KYIV, Feb. 24, 2021 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/navalny-ukraine-attitudes-mixed-feelings-russia-nationalism-putin/31120106.html) Few patriots would appreciate an outsider comparing a chunk of their country to finger food. But when Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny did just that to Ukrainians in 2014 — saying that Moscow-annexed Crimea […]
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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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MOSCOW. Feb 24 (Interfax) – The line that is being pursued by some foreign countries to interfere in Russia’s sociopolitical affairs has no prospects, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “We’ve been exposed to a purposeful information campaign involving categorical and unwarranted accusations on a whole variety of issues. Even some absurd and ridiculous conspiracy theories have been employed in an […]
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