Do Digital Technologies Serve People or Autocrats?
Gulnaz Sharafutdinova reports on how Russia’s authorities are investing heavily into a ‘smart city’ agenda which could enable a slice of better governance
Political actors
Who are Navalny’s Digital Dissidents?
Andrei Semenov and Jan Matti Dollbaum paint a socio-political portrait of Alexey Navalny’s online followers
Mishustin and the Politics of Stagflation
Nick Trickett believes Russia’s government is fighting a losing battle against inflation
Navalny groups threatened with ‘extremist’ label
Grigorii Golosov reviews the legal implications of the government’s ‘extremist’ label for Alexey Navalny’s supporters
Foolproofing Putinism
Fabian Burkhardt on why Mikhail Mishustin might be one of the most ambitious Prime Ministers in recent Russian history
Alexei Navalny and his potential supporters
Stepan Goncharov investigates the levels of support and opposition to Alexei Navalny across Russia
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
2020 in Russia: the year when politics became a crime
Ivan Davydov on key developments in Russia in 2020
The prospects for Putin’s ‘long state’
Alexander Morozov on why Putin has not become an Atatürk for post-Soviet Russia
The split in Putin’s regime
Tatiana Stanovaya on how dreams of greatness can in fact erode the Russian state
The fumbling return of Putin the Historian
Igor Gretskiy wonder why Putin has again decided to take on the role of historian