Navalny’s return puts the spotlight back on Russia’s security services
Kirill Shamiev sees Alexei Navalny’s return to Russia — and subsequent arrest — as another reminder of why reform of Russia’s security services is long overdue
Politics
2020 in Russia: the year when politics became a crime
Ivan Davydov on key developments in Russia in 2020
Six myths about elections and protests in autocracies
Margarita Zavadskaya on why it’s high time we forgot the rhetoric of “colour revolutions”
Russia’s war on Covid-19 is stalling
Vladislav Inozemtsev on how Russian authorities are losing the battle against COVID-19
The ‘paradiplomacy’ of Russia’s regions
Denis Stremoukhov looks at how and why different regions in Russia try to carve out their own foreign policy dynamics
The prospects for Putin’s ‘long state’
Alexander Morozov on why Putin has not become an Atatürk for post-Soviet Russia
Tight-lipped social networking services
Stanislav Andreychuk on why social networking sites do not contribute to freedom of elections
The split in Putin’s regime
Tatiana Stanovaya on how dreams of greatness can in fact erode the Russian state
Unpacking the results of the Russian elections of Sept. 13
Mikhail Turchenko recounts the trials and tribulations of Russia’s September 13th elections, including Navalny’s Smart Voting
The unconquerable Batalkhadzhintsy brotherhood
Ivan U. Klyszcz discusses the role of the secretive Sufi Batalkhadzhintsy brotherhood in Ingush politics and their persistent conflict with local authorities
The ideology of political opposition in Russia
Sergey Belanovsky and Anastasia Nikolskaya on the ideology of political activists and the need to cooperate with officials
A Quick Guide to Russia’s Elections on Sept. 13
Stanislav Andreychuk on how the Russian authorities will approach the various 2020 regional elections