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Introduction It has been almost ten years since the Five-Day War broke in August 2008 between Georgia, on one side, and Russia and South Ossetia, on the other. 1 This topic has been the subject of many debates inside and outside of academia. Pundits and journalists investigated the
electioneering involves “a deep understanding of the intricacies of electoral systems”. 22 Such an understanding involves learning not so much from the neighbouring autocracies but rather from democracies, even if distantly located. The case of Russia, especially if coupled with the focus on electoral
The essence of Russia’s political system lies in its dynamism. In the early 1980s, Russia was under one of the world’s least democratic regimes, the Soviet Union. By the early 1990s, the ussr had collapsed and a newly vibrant, independent Russian Federation had held its first truly competitive
1 Introduction Russia conceives of itself as a great power straddling Europe and Asia. This idea remains the cultural milieu of virtually every discussion about Russian foreign policy and the country’s place in the world. The administration of Vladimir Putin envisages Russia as a bridge
1 Introduction Recent analyses of Russia’s constitutional amendments adopted in 2020 focus on the content of the reforms and their potential either to alter or confirm existing institutional power structures. 1 While the institutional and political implications are certainly important, it
1 Introduction In this study, I analyze the politics of ideology in contemporary Russia, focusing on the concept of ‘sovereign democracy’ (henceforth SD). 1 During the last years of Putin’s second presidential term, the concept of SD dominated the political discourse in Russia and played
1 Introduction The rise of the Far Right has been a steady global phenomenon, illustrated by political leaders such as Narendra Modi, Geert Wilders and Jair Bolsonaro. One of the main facilitators of this rise is Russia, supporting Far Right campaigns and movements in various regions of the
The debate about the Ukraine crisis appearing Foreign Affairs between John Mearsheimer, Michael McFaul and Stephen Sestanovich nicely encapsulates the divide among Western scholars and policy makers over how to interpret Russian foreign policy. McFaul and Sestanovich, echoing the prevailing
Introduction The endemic nature of corruption in Russia’s political economy has long become a common knowledge both inside and outside the country. The societal understanding of corruption issues is constructed, on one hand, by the Russian political opposition that uses official corruption
trade ties between Ukraine and the eu . Up to that moment, Yanukovych had been trying to get concessions from both the eu and Russia by playing the two powers off of each other. However, he was playing a dangerous game. While overall he was more sympathetic to Russian interests, he was still trying