Teaching Comparative Government

Keep an eye on this topic. Will Russia (Putin) accept rule of law? Russia Navalny: Strasbourg court condemns detentions of Putin foe Navalny Europe's top human rights court has found that the repeated detention of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was politically motivated. Mr Navalny filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and was there to hear the ruling on Thursday. The court found that his seven arrests between 2012 and 2014 had been aimed at "suppressing political pluralism". Since then, police have arrested him several times again under protest laws. "We've won," he tweeted after the verdict. "Completely. The government has been thrashed. They recognised Article 18 [of the European Convention on Human Rights]. Hurray!" [Выиграли. Полностью. Правительство разгромлено. 18 статью признали. Ура! https://t.co/V1yeMPLFmT — Alexey Navalny (@navalny) November 15, 2018] Under Article 18, citizens' rights ...

Has Putin met his match in Russia, and is it Putin? Trust in Vladimir Putin declines steeply among Russians, poll shows Trust in Vladimir Putin and Russia’s ruling party have declined steeply over the past year with analysts pointing to the government’s controversial pension changes as the main reason. In a poll by the independent Levada Centre, 39% of Russians listed Putin as a politican they trust. That is a 20% decrease from November 2017, when Putin was named by 59% of Russians, according to the same polling agency. The Levada polls are the latest to show a strong backlash as the Kremlin pushes unpopular social reforms to relieve pressure on the budget. This month, 45% of Russians told FOM (Public Opinion Foundation), a polling agency close to the Kremlin, they would vote for Putin if elections were held this Sunday. That rating was down from 67% at the beginning of the year. It is among the lowest support Putin has held in the last decade, according to FOM data, tied only with hi...

Which action is most unlikely? Counting votes that were not cast or the Communist Party demanding a fair election? (Are my Cold War biases showing?) Russian communist hunger strike over 'rigged' far east vote An opposition candidate has gone on hunger strike in the far east of Russia after suddenly losing a key regional election that he was poised to win. With more than 95% of votes counted in the Primorye region, the communist Andrei Ishchenko had a five-point lead. But during the night his pro-Putin rival Andrei Tarasenko overtook him. Protest in Vladivostok On Facebook Mr Ishchenko urged his supporters to protest in Vladivostok, saying "our votes are being stolen". The communists are taking legal action. Mr Ishchenko said the party's legal service was preparing formal protests over the results in several districts: Artyom, Ussuriysk, Nakhodka, and Sovietskiy, which is in Vladivostok. "We won't go away until we see fair election results!" he said. ...

The scholars at The Monkey Cage offer this analysis of one aspect of Russian politics. Two Moscow teens were released from jail after thousands protested in the streets. Here are 5 things you need to know. On Aug. 15, thousands of protesters took to Moscow’s streets for the “March of the Mothers,” armed with stuffed animals, seeking the release of teens who were jailed in March. The parents allege that Russian officials entrapped their children, detaining them on false charges of plotting to overthrow the government. What’s going on? 1. Russia has been cracking down on what it calls extremists since 2002 When in 2002 Russia’s Duma first passed anti-extremism laws that banned stopping any religious group from asserting it was superior to any other… [T]he Duma steadily expanded the laws’ scope over the years: in 2014 to track “extremist” bloggers, and in 2015 to include “liking” social media posts the government considers extremist… 2. Russian youths have taken on a growing role in o...

What's the Russian equivalent of 200,000 to 300,000 people protesting in Washington, DC? Does 10,000 people protesting in Moscow make the grade? Russia pension protests: Fresh anti-reform rallies held Further protests against pension reforms have taken place in Russia, despite the recent concessions offered by President Vladimir Putin. Independent observers say more than 10,000 people took part in rallies in Moscow. Other cities also saw demonstrations. Communist protesters in Moscow The initial proposal was to raise the retirement age for women to 63 from 55, and for men to 65 from 60. On Wednesday he said the pension age for women would only be raised to 60. Mr Putin has said reform is a financial necessity, but it has been met with a hostile reception and led to a steep fall in his popularity… Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has previously said the decision was motivated by the fact that Russians are living longer and leading more active lives… In a TV address last week, Mr P...

It's never easy to extend one set of statistics to a whole political system, but they often offer glimpses of the system. IF you can "read" the numbers. Life in Vladimir Putin's Russia explained in 10 charts Vladimir Putin has dominated Russian politics as its undisputed leader for almost two decades. Over successive terms as president and prime minister he has overseen an economic boom, military expansion and the re-establishment of Russia as a major power. Living standards for most Russians improved, and a renewed sense of stability and national pride emerged. But the price, many say, was the erosion of Russia's fledgling democracy. How has life changed for ordinary Russians during this time? 1. Fewer people are poor Levels of poverty may be significantly lower than before, but Russia is still above the average for many of the world's biggest economies. 2. But wage growth has stalled recently During Mr Putin's first stint as president, wages consistently...

Like many other European countries, Russia is facing an aging population. That means paying for pensions becomes more and more difficult. How does Russia's population distribution compare with that of other countries you're studying? Do those countries face more, less, or similarly difficult problems? What are the political consequences of those problems? Russia protests: Thousands rally over plan to raise pension age Thousands of people have taken part in protests in cities across Russia to express their anger at government proposals to raise the pension age. Demonstrators in the capital, Moscow, carried banners reading: "We want to live on our pensions, not die at work." The government says it wants to raise the pension age from 60 to 65 for men, and from 55 to 63 for women, to help cope with a shrinking workforce. Communist Party protesters But unions warn many people will not live long enough to claim a pension. Russian men have a life expectancy of just 66, while...

When I saw Paul Krugman's opinion piece in the New York Times, I was reminded that the metaphor he used was helpful in explaining government and politics in Russia. Here's the introduction to his editorial. Now imagine how this image (a Potemkin village) could help make sense out of elections in contemporary Russia, a constitution that can be modified by the supermajority in the Duma, or Putin as virtually president for life. Do a web search for Potemkin Village to see how common the idea is. Trump’s Potemkin Economy According to legend, Grigory Potemkin, one of Catherine the Great’s ministers (and her lover), created a false impression of prosperity when the empress toured Ukraine. He supposedly did this by setting up fake villages, or possibly just facades, along her route, then dismantling them after she passed, and setting them up again further down the road. A movie set as a Potemkin Village There probably isn’t much if any truth to the story — among other things, Catherin...

It's official, Putin is president. Putin is inaugurated for fourth term as Russian president Vladimir Putin has been sworn in for a fourth term as Russian president and pledged to harness the country's talents to "achieve breakthroughs"… He has been in power for 18 years, as president and prime minister, and opponents have likened his tenure to the reign of a tsar, or emperor… On Saturday riot police confronted protesters against his rule in Moscow and other Russian cities. More than 1,000 arrests are said to have been made in 19 cities. The biggest complaint among Russians surveyed by the Levada Centre, a major sociological research body, was that Mr Putin had failed to reduce the wealth gap (the top complaint for 45% of respondents). Another big complaint (for 39%) was the failure to refund Russians who lost savings during market reforms… Mr Putin was re-elected president with more than 76% of the vote, his best ever election performance, but widespread irregula...

You might want to pencil in some edits to your textbook's chapter on Russia. This is from The Washington Post Opinion section. Is Russia all out of oligarchs? It says it is. Newly announced U.S. sanctions on Russia aim to target not only its political elite but also its financial elite: the “oligarchs.” “Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said… But what if Russia doesn't have oligarchs? That may seem like a radical position, but that's the apparent stance of the Russian government. “There are no oligarchs in Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters… The term that the Russian presidential spokesman said he would prefer was “representatives of big business.” … Such remarks may cause many in the West to scoff, but there is a kernel of truth to the idea. The term “oligarch” first came to be used in R...