Pub Date : 2023-11-06DOI: 10.1080/1060586x.2023.2275507
Aiden Hoyle, Charlotte Wagnsson, Thomas E. Powell, Helma van den Berg, Bertjan Doosje
{"title":"Life through grey-tinted glasses: how do audiences in Latvia psychologically respond to Sputnik Latvia’s destruction narratives of a failed Latvia?","authors":"Aiden Hoyle, Charlotte Wagnsson, Thomas E. Powell, Helma van den Berg, Bertjan Doosje","doi":"10.1080/1060586x.2023.2275507","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2023.2275507","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135684061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-16DOI: 10.1080/1060586x.2023.2265253
Monika Nalepa, Thomas F. Remington
In February 2022, Vladimir Putin, under the pretext of defending Russians in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, launched an all-out attack on sovereign Ukraine. Since then, Russia has violated multiple principles of just warfare. We consider the question of accountability for these crimes, outlining two scenarios: (1) the Putin regime remains in place, and (2) it is succeeded by a post-war regime that undertakes transitional justice as part of a broader effort at democratization. We review international institutions adjudicating criminal responsibility and domestic transitional justice mechanisms that eschew criminal approaches to accountability in favor of personnel policies. Combining limited purges with truth-revelation can prevent the accumulation of grievances and help rebuild a democratic culture. Although normative standards of justice might demand harsh punishment of Russian leaders by criminal tribunals, focusing on broad personnel transitional justice – purges and lustrations – carried out domestically can be conducive to long-term democratic stability in Russia.
{"title":"Transitional justice options for post-war Russia","authors":"Monika Nalepa, Thomas F. Remington","doi":"10.1080/1060586x.2023.2265253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2023.2265253","url":null,"abstract":"In February 2022, Vladimir Putin, under the pretext of defending Russians in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, launched an all-out attack on sovereign Ukraine. Since then, Russia has violated multiple principles of just warfare. We consider the question of accountability for these crimes, outlining two scenarios: (1) the Putin regime remains in place, and (2) it is succeeded by a post-war regime that undertakes transitional justice as part of a broader effort at democratization. We review international institutions adjudicating criminal responsibility and domestic transitional justice mechanisms that eschew criminal approaches to accountability in favor of personnel policies. Combining limited purges with truth-revelation can prevent the accumulation of grievances and help rebuild a democratic culture. Although normative standards of justice might demand harsh punishment of Russian leaders by criminal tribunals, focusing on broad personnel transitional justice – purges and lustrations – carried out domestically can be conducive to long-term democratic stability in Russia.","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136114019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-16DOI: 10.1080/1060586x.2023.2264079
Yana Otlan, Yulia Kuzmina, Aleksandra Rumiantseva, Katerina Tertytchnaya
The proliferation of protests around the world poses challenges for authoritarian media outlets. While censoring news about protests abroad may push audiences to alternative news sources, their coverage could motivate citizens to take to the streets at home. To explore whether and how authoritarian media outlets cover foreign protests, we leverage evidence from Russia. Combining evidence from a decade of news coverage with protest-event data, we show that far from censoring news on protests abroad, authoritarian outlets afford them extensive coverage. The coverage of foreign protests, however, declines on days of large Russian protests, when the costs of encouraging mobilization are potentially greater. We also show that authoritarian media selectively use protests abroad, especially those in democracies, to convey the image of citizen activism as threatening and disorderly. Findings, which speak to research on authoritarian propaganda, have implications for scholarship on protest management and authoritarian resilience.
{"title":"Authoritarian media and foreign protests: evidence from a decade of Russian news","authors":"Yana Otlan, Yulia Kuzmina, Aleksandra Rumiantseva, Katerina Tertytchnaya","doi":"10.1080/1060586x.2023.2264079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2023.2264079","url":null,"abstract":"The proliferation of protests around the world poses challenges for authoritarian media outlets. While censoring news about protests abroad may push audiences to alternative news sources, their coverage could motivate citizens to take to the streets at home. To explore whether and how authoritarian media outlets cover foreign protests, we leverage evidence from Russia. Combining evidence from a decade of news coverage with protest-event data, we show that far from censoring news on protests abroad, authoritarian outlets afford them extensive coverage. The coverage of foreign protests, however, declines on days of large Russian protests, when the costs of encouraging mobilization are potentially greater. We also show that authoritarian media selectively use protests abroad, especially those in democracies, to convey the image of citizen activism as threatening and disorderly. Findings, which speak to research on authoritarian propaganda, have implications for scholarship on protest management and authoritarian resilience.","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136113167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-06DOI: 10.1080/1060586x.2023.2253415
G. Garifullina
{"title":"The best among the connected (men): promotion in the Russian state apparatus","authors":"G. Garifullina","doi":"10.1080/1060586x.2023.2253415","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2023.2253415","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42970520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-05DOI: 10.1080/1060586x.2023.2254148
Olga Avdeyeva
{"title":"Dominant party and co-ethnic vote in Russia’s ethnic republics","authors":"Olga Avdeyeva","doi":"10.1080/1060586x.2023.2254148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2023.2254148","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41288563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-21DOI: 10.1080/1060586X.2023.2247782
K. Larsen
ABSTRACT The Russian private military company (PMC), the Wagner Group, went from being a public secret to openly fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s war in Ukraine. By looking at Russian pro-government media discourses on PMCs, this paper argues that this development is largely made possible by a discursive shift, which happened before the war. Two basic discourses are found in the period leading up to the war – a discourse that denies the existence of Russian PMCs, and a discourse of normalization, which constructs PMCs as legitimate businesses and Russia as a great power. The two discourses previously kept the PMCs in a grey zone, allowing the Russian political elite deniability, while also taking credit for the foreign policy successes the PMCs achieved. However, this paper shows a discursive shift of recognizing PMCs as legitimate actors, which allowed for the Wagner Group to play a key role in Russia’s war.
{"title":"From mercenary to legitimate actor? Russian discourses on private military companies","authors":"K. Larsen","doi":"10.1080/1060586X.2023.2247782","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2023.2247782","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Russian private military company (PMC), the Wagner Group, went from being a public secret to openly fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s war in Ukraine. By looking at Russian pro-government media discourses on PMCs, this paper argues that this development is largely made possible by a discursive shift, which happened before the war. Two basic discourses are found in the period leading up to the war – a discourse that denies the existence of Russian PMCs, and a discourse of normalization, which constructs PMCs as legitimate businesses and Russia as a great power. The two discourses previously kept the PMCs in a grey zone, allowing the Russian political elite deniability, while also taking credit for the foreign policy successes the PMCs achieved. However, this paper shows a discursive shift of recognizing PMCs as legitimate actors, which allowed for the Wagner Group to play a key role in Russia’s war.","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46251065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-19DOI: 10.1080/1060586x.2023.2223059
Björn Alexander Düben
{"title":"Omnibalancing in China-Russia relations: regime survival and the specter of domestic threats as an impetus for bilateral alignment","authors":"Björn Alexander Düben","doi":"10.1080/1060586x.2023.2223059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2023.2223059","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44086425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-07DOI: 10.1080/1060586X.2023.2221592
O. Reznik
ABSTRACT The study attempts to explain the determined resistance of Ukrainians to Russia’s aggression based on empirical data from a survey of Ukraine’s population obtained on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The willingness to resist has been determined by societal identity, which combines pro-Western orientations and Ukrainian-speaking identity. At the same time, factors of regional affiliation and linguistic behavior were not found to have influence. An indicator that ranks respondents’ possible reaction to the war showed the differentiated nature of Ukrainians’ willingness to resist. The willingness to engage in various types of struggle was conditioned by distinct gender roles and socioeconomic resources. This explains the comprehensive scope and mass character of Ukrainian resistance to the war. The societal will to fight was manifested among the Ukrainian military and spread to civilians.
{"title":"The willingness of Ukrainians to fight for their own country on the eve of the 2022 Russian invasion","authors":"O. Reznik","doi":"10.1080/1060586X.2023.2221592","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2023.2221592","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The study attempts to explain the determined resistance of Ukrainians to Russia’s aggression based on empirical data from a survey of Ukraine’s population obtained on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The willingness to resist has been determined by societal identity, which combines pro-Western orientations and Ukrainian-speaking identity. At the same time, factors of regional affiliation and linguistic behavior were not found to have influence. An indicator that ranks respondents’ possible reaction to the war showed the differentiated nature of Ukrainians’ willingness to resist. The willingness to engage in various types of struggle was conditioned by distinct gender roles and socioeconomic resources. This explains the comprehensive scope and mass character of Ukrainian resistance to the war. The societal will to fight was manifested among the Ukrainian military and spread to civilians.","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48937429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-27DOI: 10.1080/1060586X.2023.2217636
M. Kragh, Andreas Umland
ABSTRACT This essay adds to previous research of Putinism an investigation of the political thought and foreign outlooks of Russia’s Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin, with a focus on their statements between 2006 to 2020. The paper outlines Patrushev’s and Naryshkin’s thoughts regarding the United States, Ukraine, and the idea of multipolarity/polycentrism. We then introduce Patrushev’s critique of liberal values and color revolutions, and Naryshkin’s statements on the memory of World War II and Western institutions. The salience of these altogether seven topics is interpreted with reference to three classical topoi in Russian political thought: the Slavophile vs. Westerners controversy, the single-stream theory, and the civilizational paradigm. Our conclusions inform the ongoing debate on whether to conceptualize Putinism as either an ideology or a mentality.
{"title":"Putinism beyond Putin: the political ideas of Nikolai Patrushev and Sergei Naryshkin in 2006–20","authors":"M. Kragh, Andreas Umland","doi":"10.1080/1060586X.2023.2217636","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2023.2217636","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This essay adds to previous research of Putinism an investigation of the political thought and foreign outlooks of Russia’s Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin, with a focus on their statements between 2006 to 2020. The paper outlines Patrushev’s and Naryshkin’s thoughts regarding the United States, Ukraine, and the idea of multipolarity/polycentrism. We then introduce Patrushev’s critique of liberal values and color revolutions, and Naryshkin’s statements on the memory of World War II and Western institutions. The salience of these altogether seven topics is interpreted with reference to three classical topoi in Russian political thought: the Slavophile vs. Westerners controversy, the single-stream theory, and the civilizational paradigm. Our conclusions inform the ongoing debate on whether to conceptualize Putinism as either an ideology or a mentality.","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42097102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-19DOI: 10.1080/1060586x.2023.2215688
Zuzana Fungáčová, Alexei Karas, Laura Solanko, Laurent Weill
Russia has witnessed a high number of bank failures over the last two decades. Using monthly data for 2002–2020, spanning four election cycles (2004, 2008, 2012, 2018), we test the hypothesis that bank failures are less likely before presidential elections. We find that, in general, bank failures are less likely to occur in the 12 months leading up to an election. However, we do not observe that bank failures during electoral cycles are more pronounced for banks associated with greater political costs (financial troubles) than for other reasons (illegal activities). Overall, our results provide mixed evidence that political cycles matter for the occurrence of bank failures in Russia.
{"title":"The politics of bank failures in Russia","authors":"Zuzana Fungáčová, Alexei Karas, Laura Solanko, Laurent Weill","doi":"10.1080/1060586x.2023.2215688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2023.2215688","url":null,"abstract":"Russia has witnessed a high number of bank failures over the last two decades. Using monthly data for 2002–2020, spanning four election cycles (2004, 2008, 2012, 2018), we test the hypothesis that bank failures are less likely before presidential elections. We find that, in general, bank failures are less likely to occur in the 12 months leading up to an election. However, we do not observe that bank failures during electoral cycles are more pronounced for banks associated with greater political costs (financial troubles) than for other reasons (illegal activities). Overall, our results provide mixed evidence that political cycles matter for the occurrence of bank failures in Russia.","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135574450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}