Recognizing and countering authoritarian resurgence
A new book is warning of an authoritarian surge around the world led by China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, who are using sophisticated methods to silence dissent and… Read more »
Category: Russia
Russia must abandon ‘false democracy’ – Putin ally
Russia must “stop playing false democracy” in order to combat a “hybrid war” waged against it by the U.S., the chief of the country’s powerful Investigative Committee said. Russian… Read more »
Isolation and propaganda: roots and instruments of Russia’s soft power
Russia’s fairly successful propaganda in the West shows that political pluralism and open societies have some significant vulnerabilities compared to authoritarian states, with regard to speed of decision-making and action,… Read more »
Russia should learn from China’s internet censorship, says official
The head of Russia’s Central Investigative Committee has urged the country’s officials to step up control of the internet, using China’s experience as a model to counter pressure from… Read more »
Soft Power the Russian Way: Proxy Groups in the Contested Neighbourhood
Anxious about losing ground to Western influence in the post-Soviet space and the ousting of many pro-Russia elites by popular electoral uprisings, the Kremlin has developed a wide range… Read more »
Coercive diplomacy aims to boost Russia’s decaying regime
The Russian regime is experimenting with a three-pronged strategy against which the West is struggling to react: “to be against the West; to be inside of the West; to be… Read more »
Can Ukraine achieve a reform breakthrough?
It is easy to characterize Ukraine’s latest attempt to reform as a repeat of the unrealized potential of the 2004 Orange Revolution, analysts John Lough and Iryna Solonenko write… Read more »
Nations in Transit: Europe & Eurasia – grim portrait of decline, small reasons for hope
While economic downturns are threatening the stability of the former Soviet Union’s “entrenched dictatorships,” the migration crisis is fueling populism in Eastern Europe, and reforms in the Balkans are in… Read more »
Video shows ‘Putin’s New Praetorians’ training to suppress a Moscow Maidan
On April 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would develop a national guard to fight terrorism and crime, but a recently released video (above) from Open Russia purports to show the guard training to… Read more »
After Yatsenyuk: Ukraine government ‘likely to be less reformist’
Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, the prime minister of Ukraine, announced his resignation on Sunday in a surprise move that opened a new period of political uncertainty, The New York Times reports:… Read more »