The awkward renewal of Russia’s cities
Andras Toth-Czifra explains how so many Russian cities have fallen short of previous visions for urban renewal
Politics
All politics is local: Urban electoral coalitions in Russia
Andrei Semenov and Elizaveta Popkova on how the formation of electoral coalitions at the local level defines the vector and format of future electoral battles
Chechnya’s memory wars
Harold Chambers describes how Ramzan Kadyrov’s historical vendettas are threatening the Kremlin and Chechnya’s neighbors
Russia’s (cancelled) ecological referenda
Andras Toth-Czifra reports on recent grassroots attempts to stage regional ecological referenda and looks into how these are affecting power dynamics in Russia
Russia’s regions have regained their political diversity
Stanislav Andreychuk on the results of regional elections in Russia
The Language of a Successful Dictator: How to Remain Popular Without Ending Repressions
Olesya Zakharova on Vladimir Putin’s argumentation schemes
How to steal an election
Stanislav Andreychuk explains how the Russian authorities gained a new constitutional majority in the Parliament against the voters’ will
The Folly of Shoigu’s New Siberian Cities
Nick Trickett questions why the Russian government is thinking about building new Siberian cities, when there is still plenty of work to do in developing the existing ones
Are these Russia’s last elections?
Stanislav Andreychuk explains why the 2021 Duma elections may not be the worst, but could be the last ones before an opaque rollout of e-voting systems
Dynamics of Illiberalism in Russia and Eurasia
Julian G. Waller on the evolution and innovations behind Russia’s illiberal turn
The impact of Smart Voting on the 2020 elections
Mikhail Turchenko and Grigori Golosov evaluate the effectiveness of smart voting
Technology against electoral fraud: A focus on transparency
Julia Krivonosova on whether electoral technologies can help combat fraud