Tag: Opposition

Russia This Week: Ultranationalist Politician Urges Men to Rape Women Reporters on Good Friday (April 14-18)

April 18, 2014

Updated Daily. Russia’s most outrageous ultranationalist has reached new lows at a press conference today. Russia’s leading social network entrepreneur reports that authorities have ordered him to turn over the personal data of groups related to the EuroMaidan protests and opposition leader Alexey Navalny; he has refused. Navalny also faces a lawsuit by a pro-Putin […]

Russian Liberals Can’t Compromise with Putinist Patriotism, Kunadze Says

April 16, 2014

Staunton, April 16 – It has become fashionable to call for liberals and patriots to compromise, to agree to “call the naked king ‘half-dressed,’”, as Russia’s latest attempt to build a state in which people live in freedom and sufficiency and one which enjoys the respect of the surrounding world has failed, Georgy Kunadze says. […]

Russians Back Putin on Crimea but Aren’t Ready to Suffer the Consequences, Gudkov Says

April 10, 2014

Staunton, April 10 – The majority of Russians support the annexation of Crimea but do not understand the implications of that action and are “not willing to suffer the consequences,” according to Lev Gudkov, the head of the Levada Center, the leading independent polling group in the Russian Federation. In a report issued this week, […]

Crimea-Induced Brain Drain Will Hurt Russia More than Sanctions, Gontmakher Says

April 8, 2014

Staunton, April 7 – The domestic consequences of Moscow’s Crimean policy combined with Russia’s weakening economic prospects will drive ever more young Russians to seek work and possibly permanent residence abroad, an “exodus” that will hurt the country far more than any of the sanctions announced so far, according to Yevgeny Gontmakher. In today’s Moskovsky […]

Russia This Week: Distorting the News (March 24-28)

March 28, 2014

Russians continue to protest the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine following a mass march against Putin’s forcible annexation of Crimea last week. (Go here and here for the last weeks’ news.) Defendants in the Bolotnaya Case charged with “instigating riots” remain on trial. The Russian government continues to make moves to suppress dissent, chiefly by blocking […]

Russia This Week: Will the Kremlin Reduce America to “Radioactive Ash”? (17-22 March)

March 22, 2014

Russians continue to protest the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, as tens of thousands turned out to protest the rigged referendum and forcible annexation of Crimea this past weekend. (Go here for last week’s chronicle.) The defendants in the Bolotnaya Case remain on trial. Some of those who protested during the Sochi Olympics last month, such […]

Aksana Panova: Banned From Journalism For 2 Years

January 10, 2014

On Thursday this week a court in Yekaterinburg issued a two year suspended sentence to a journalist, Aksana Panova, for extortion. The sentence came with an unheard of addition: Panova is banned from working in media for two years. That the grounds for the conviction are ropey at best is worrying enough, though unsurprising for […]

Russia to Abolish Mayoral and City Duma Elections

December 11, 2013

This summer, the biggest story in Russia was that, for the first time in recent memory, a serious opposition candidate, Alexei Navalny, could win an important election. Navalny was running for Moscow’s mayor against President Putin’s favored candidate, Sergei Sobyanin. Despite being arrested, tried and convicted for fraud, and then released, Navalny still received a […]

About the Education of the “Uneducated”

November 8, 2013

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny published a statement (translated by The Interpreter) explaining why he did not attend the nationalist “Russian March” which was held on November 4. The march is an annual a protest against immigration and internal migration policies, as well as against the policies that allow employers to bring migrant workers to work […]

What to Do on September 8

September 9, 2013

This is a tongue-in-cheek post about what the Russian opposition should do on election day. Obviously, the election has already past, but this article actually provides a really good “idiot’s guide” to how votes in Russia are counted, and how they are supposed to be. Alexei Navalny is claiming that the incumbent mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, […]