Tag: Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Gray Zone Aggression: Combating Russia’s Hostile Measures

     

The current consensus on the complex Russian threat is simultaneously understated and overblown. Russia is dangerous. It sows disorder, weakens democratic institutions, and undermines NATO cohesion. In some ways, its… Read more »

Kremlin running scared? Russia’s regions ‘in revolt’

     

While Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrates 20 years in the Kremlin and poses as a powerful world leader, his Russian Federation is showing increasing signs of fracture, according to Janusz Bugajski, a senior… Read more »

Countering Global Kleptocracy: Protests fueling new era of unrest

     

Ten or even 20 years ago, the protests unfolding in Lebanon would have led news bulletins around the world—what is more compelling than large portions of the population of this… Read more »

‘Gems, Warlords and Mercenaries’: Russia’s sharp power playbook in Africa

     

Russia lacks China’s muscle when it comes to trade and infrastructure. But it has other assets. One is a shrewd appreciation of the political needs of African dictators, another is… Read more »

Kremlin exporting ‘political technologists’: West confronts Russian (dis)information machine

     

Russians deserve to live in a free democracy and the the world must come to their defense, according to an open letter signed by prominent democracy advocates.* The violations of… Read more »

Citizen K: Putin’s nightmare? The ballot box

     

By any measure, the decline of Putinism is indisputable. It was best captured by a poll conducted in May by the government-run Public Opinion Center, which showed that public trust… Read more »

Narratives can counter the disinformation dominating World Press Freedom Day

     

“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it,”  said the celebrated satirist Jonathan Swift. A rising tide of fake news and disinformation is dominating World Press Freedom Day discussions taking… Read more »

Boris Nemtsov’s murder: ‘Crime of the Century’?

     

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled former Russian oligarch who was arrested by Putin’s police in 2003 and languished in prison for ten years, observed of Boris Nemtsov’s murder: “I think Boris… Read more »

Russia’s ‘fusion of power and criminality’: how to combat Putin’s kleptocratic mafia

     

There is little prospect of a Russo-American ‘grand bargain’ or rapprochement, even if Vladimir Putin visits Washington, in part because the US will not abandon democracy promotion, a RUSI analysis suggests: Russia unsuccessfully pushed for… Read more »

Grave human rights abuses occurring in Crimea, UN finds

     

Russia violates the rights of annexed Crimean peninsula residents with impunity, employing arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and torture, a UN report published on Monday states: The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)… Read more »