Institute of Modern Russia

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How Belarus Maneuvers between Russia and the West

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30 April 2020

Dmitry Shlapentokh

Recently, Belarus emerged on the US international agenda as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Minsk to meet President Alexander Lukashenko in what was the first such high profile encounter between the two countries in 26 years. The visit alarmed Moscow, which has long been nursing a plan to absorb Belarus as part of the Union State. Minsk’s latest feud with the Kremlin showcases Lukashenko’s ability to successfully manipulate geopolitical differences between Russia and the West, and to extract surprising concessions from its significantly more powerful neighbor.

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What Would a Biden Presidency Mean for Russia?

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22 April 2020

Yana Gorokhovskaia

Former Vice President Joseph Biden has recently emerged as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who will face Donald Trump in November. Even though the outcome of the 2020 presidential election could not be more unclear, it is time to ask a question: what would a Biden presidency mean for US-Russia relations?

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Oil Boomerang

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15 April 2020

Olga Khvostunova

Last weekend, OPEC+ members struck a historic deal on a record cut of oil production to stabilize prices. However, the positive effects of the deal are offset by the slowing global economy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Market analysts believe that the agreement was reached too late as a result of the Kremlin’s short-sighted decision to wage an oil price war against the United States.

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How COVID-19 Showcases Putin’s Crisis-Management Style

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14 April 2020

Anna Williams

As of April 15, Russia has counted almost twenty-five thousand coronavirus cases, with the official death toll reaching 198 people. The country has virtually been under quarantine for three weeks, and its healthcare system is increasingly under stress. Amidst this national crisis, in a classic feat of his crisis-management style, Vladimir Putin has stayed largely out of sight, deferring responsibility for tackling COVID-19 to regional leaders.

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Five Patterns of the Putin Regime

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05 April 2020

Olga Khvostunova

On March 26, IMR launched the “Russia under Putin” project, which includes a timeline of the country’s key political developments over the last 20 years. This factual digest serves not only to refresh one’s memory but also to retrace the Putin regime’s evolution and its modus operandi. IMR’s Olga Khvostunova highlights the key patterns of this regime and explains what they mean.

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The Labors of Sisyphus: Why Russia’s National Projects Are Put On Hold

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02 April 2020

András Tóth-Czifra

Russia’s new prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, was tasked with pushing forward the stalling national projects amidst the political transition initiated by Vladimir Putin earlier this year. Today, as the COVID-19 pandemic and Moscow’s oil price war with OPEC hits the Russian economy hard, the chances for the projects to be successfully carried out this year are getting slim. Moreover, a closer look at the government efforts shows that even before these crises, implementation of the national projects was already problematic.

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Governors Redux

How regional and local governments became a problem for Putin

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28 February 2020

András Tóth-Czifra

One of the underreported stories in Russian politics is the growing tensions between the federal government in Moscow and the regions. Increasingly centralized revenues and political authority along with undue preferences given to Moscow have sparked regional crises, signaling the problem to Vladimir Putin directly. It appears that he will try to solve this problem by codifying bottom-up accountability, instead of strengthening local governance. That’s a mistake.

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What Happens with Russia’s Constitutional Reform

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23 February 2020

Institute of Modern Russia

Preparations for constitutional reform in Russia are being rolled out at an unprecedented pace. On January 15, Vladimir Putin proposed to amend the country’s Basic Law, and already on January 23, the corresponding draft law was passed by the State Duma in the first reading. A national vote on the issue is expected to take place on April 22. For those who can’t keep up with these rapid developments, IMR has compiled a brief timeline with selected commentaries by leading Russian legal experts.

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How Russia, Poland, and Ukraine Try to Revise WWII History

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18 February 2020

Dmitry Shlapentokh

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II—the war that has largely shaped the modern world order. As countries prepare to celebrate another year of peace in Europe, it is clear that unresolved political rifts, old and new, are pushing some leaders to revise the history of the war for their own political gains.

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Putin’s Maternal Capital Will Not Fix Russia’s Demographic Problem

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12 February 2020

Anna Williams

Along with a series of sweeping constitutional reforms, Vladimir Putin also announced a host of changes to socio-economic programs during the State of the Nation address on January 15. In addition to indexing pensions and ensuring that the minimum wage remains above subsistence levels, the government prolonged and enlarged the maternity capital program.