Politics
A close look at the inner workings of authoritarian power in Russia and beyond, and the forces that could one day transform it: how the Kremlin holds and wields power, why the democratic opposition endures, and what a genuine political renewal would take
If the world blinks, Putin will seize the rest of Ukraine
This will be a crucial year for Ukraine’s delicately balanced democracy and sovereignty. A real danger is in the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin will scan the…
The Kremlin’s Hybrid Aggression
Free Russia Foundation is proud to present our new report "The Kremlin's Hybrid Aggression" authored by Ilya Yashin. Russia is critically interested in maintaining peaceful and good neighborly…
Stop funding RT: Better ways to spend the budget money
State Duma, the Russian Parliament have just adopted Russian federal budget for 2017. No cuts for funding propaganda was made, of course. If you are interested how “Russia…
Russia’s Likely to Interfere in French and German Elections Next
Cultivating political connections with allies in Europe is a key part of Putin’s influence strategy. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has reportedly concluded that Russia intervened in the…
Russian Elections: Results, Causes, and Consequences
A short overview of results, causes, and consequences of Russian elections by Russian liberal politician Leonid Gozman. Results The results of Russia’s recent parliamentary elections are quite characteristic…
The Tsar and His Business Serfs
Free Russia Foundation and the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies are happy to present our new joint report “The Tsar and His Business Serfs. Russian Oligarchs and SMEs…
Is the leader of the United Russia Party afraid of being elected in Russia?
We are witnessing a juicy sequel of the story with Untied Russia altering a voting district to get the number of votes that would otherwise be insufficient to…
Putin to a Western country leader: “I’ll crush you”
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Ohio University political science professor Karen Dawisha while walking across Washington D.C. We discussed how Western leaders should feel about…
The Sixth Column
In recent years, the war of ideas in Russian society is on the rise as intensively as the class warfare should have been in Soviet society while approaching…
Sergey Aleksashenko: will Russia’s reserves deplete by the elections of 2018?
Experts and officials constantly discuss the upcoming depletion of Russian state reserves. However, it is not very clear that reserves—fiscal or some other resources, will deplete soon.…