Russian Domestic Politics

Despite the unprecedented sanctions against Russia following Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022, no important member of Russia's ruling circles has defected. 

Russia’s Islam has been much more than the two Chechen wars, and regular terrorist actions that have shaken the Russian territory. Islam constitutes an integral part of Russia’s history and culture, and the Putin regime regularly celebrates Islam’s contribution to the country and its great...

Year after year, Russian liberal politicians and experts have been promising radical changes in Russia’s economics and politics, which, they believed, would lead to the collapse of the Putin regime.

The charge of "fascism" has become a strategic narrative of the current world order.

What makes the militia milieu so unique and important for understanding today’s Russia is that it finds itself at the intersection of state institutions, patronage mechanisms, criminal structures, and grassroots illiberal activism.

The struggle against terrorism is supposed to be one part of security policy in which Russia has every necessary capability and know-how, and its special services can draw on vast experience without encountering the legal and institutional constraints that often interfere with Western efforts....

Almost 20 years after Vladimir Putin's accession to the presidency in 2000, how should the Russian political system be defined?

This paper analyses the phenomenon of “Kadyrovism” as a relatively coherent ideology which possesses its own internal logic and propaganda tools and which reflects the reality of Ramzan Kadyrov’s rule, based on submission to Vladimir Putin while also being marked by provocative acts directed...

From the very beginning, the armed conflict that broke out in the Donbass in the spring of 2014 drew in right-wing radicals, on the Ukrainian as well as on the Russian side. Organised ultra-nationalist groups and individual activists established their own units of volunteers or joined existing...

President Vladimir Putin’s third term of office proceeds under the “conservative shift.” Does this mean that the Russian government has finally opted for conservatism as its official—though not state—ideology, with long-term consequences for both its domestic policy and foreign policies?