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Trump’s Love for Putin, How Russia Can Throw the U.S. Election, and Why Levada Center Got Shut Down

September 5–11

Details: 11 September 2016

In this week’s Western media highlights, Steven Lee Myers explains in the New York Times Trump’s fascination with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. In her column for the Washington Post, Anne Applebaum spells out a potential scenario of Russian hackers undermining the U.S. presidential election. In the Russian media, experts discussed the reasons for putting Levada Center on the “foreign agents” list, and disserted upon the country’s development path and the so-called “legacy of the past.”

Details: Law

The Hamlet Question: Autocracy or Federation? Part 2

Details: 07 September 2016; Vladimir Pastukhov

The Institute of Modern Russia continues the discussion on the issues of Russian constitutionalism. In part two of this essay, political scientist Vladimir Pastukhov explains why Russia’s unitary structure leaves it an autocratic empire, and why a federation would permit it to become a nation-state with functioning authority.

Details: Media Must-Reads

Assange’s Connection with Putin, Russian Troops at Ukraine’s Border, and the Reorganization of Putin’s Political System

August 27–September 2

Details: 02 September 2016

In this week’s Western media highlights, the New York Times explores the connection that seems to exist between Julian Assange and the Kremlin in light of the recent Democratic National Committee email leak that many experts trace back to Russian intelligence. Writing for Vox, Mark Galeotti dismisses the West’s fears that Russian troops are amassing by the Ukrainian border in order to invade. And in the Russian media, analysts discuss recent shifts in the Kremlin’s power structures and implications of the death of Uzbekistan president Islam Karimov, who occupied the office for 27 years.

Details: Economics

Sergey Aleksashenko: “The Statement about Not Having Enough Money for Salaries Is No Joke”

Details: 22 August 2016; Sergey Aleksashenko

In his latest commentary about recent events in the Russian economy, Sergey Aleksashenko, nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, analyzes yet another decision of the Central Bank not to raise the key rate, the trend in issuance of mortgage credits, and the diminishing reserves of the Russian budget.

Details: Media Must-Reads

Why the West Needs Kremlinology, Russia’s “Lost Decade,” and How Television Shapes Russian Consciousness

August 20–26

Details: 26 August 2016

In this week’s Western media highlights, Anders Åslund explains in the American Interest that the West needs to revive Kremlinology, a Soviet-era analytical approach to deciphering and understanding the opaque practices of Russian politics. Meanwhile, in the Russian media, Vladislav Inozemtsev argues that despite the popular view, Russia’s “lost decade” is not the current one, but was instead the first ten years under Putin’s rule. And sociologist Aleksei Levinson writes that state television does not control the Russian public mind; in fact, it’s the Russian people who choose self-censorship.

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