In the December 2011 protests that shook Russia, civic mobilization took place in two phases: first, in the form of a protest vote during the December State Duma elections, and second, in the postelection street protests in Moscow and in Russia’s larger regional capitals. To its credit, the Russian opposition was able to quickly tie the problem of electoral fraud to the current structure of the Russian political system, and to speedily organize large protest rallies in response. Yet more needs to be done.
About the Author
Denis Volkov is a researcher at the Yuri Levada Center, an independent Moscow-based organization devoted to the analysis of Russian public life. He comments frequently on politics in the Russian media and studies youth political engagement, the sources and limits of democratization, and the role of digital media in social and political change. This essay was translated from the Russian by Patrick Walsh.
Read the full essay here. Arguably a flawed democracy in the 1990s, Russia took a distinctly authoritarian turn under President Vladimir Putin from 2000 to 2008. The country now lives…
At the end of the Cold War, semipresidentialism became the modal constitution of the postcommunist world. In Russia and other post-Soviet states, however, this system of government has impeded consolidation.
