Pål Kolstø, professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Oslo, has written extensively on nation-building and ethnic issues in Russia and Eastern Europe.
The Putin regime, having faced its first real challenge in the form of mass protests after the 2011 Duma elections, is responding with a series of laws intended to intimidate…
Read the full essay here. The Russian system of personalized power is growing ever more dependent on the same strategies that proved useless in sustaining the USSR. While the system…