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The Duma’s Two Sets of Books

Details: 22 January 2013; Alexander Podrabinek

Having dealt with street rallies, NGOs, “spies,” and orphans, the Russian Duma has turned its attention to journalists. A new bill being drafted in the lower house (dubbed the “Pozner bill”) would ban Russians who hold citizenships of other countries from working on state-owned or state-supported television channels. According to author and analyst Alexander Podrabinek, the new initiative not only represents a cheap propagandistic stunt, but also demonstrates the hypocrisy of the current regime.

Details: Politics

How Putin Elects the Duma

Details: 17 January 2013; Tatiana Stanovaya

The electoral reform announced by Vladimir Putin – the switch from a proportional system of parliamentary elections to a mixed plurality-proportional one – has become one of the main topics of the current political season. This change heralds a reassessment of Putin’s style of political control. Tatiana Stanovaya, the head of the analytical department at the Center for Political Technologies and an IMR advisor, considers the president’s motives.

Details: Politics

95 Years Without Legitimacy

Details: 16 January 2013; Vladimir Kara-Murza

Ninety-five years ago, in the early morning of January 19, 1918, the armed guards of the Tauride Palace, acting on the orders of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, interrupted the session of the Russian Constituent Assembly. According to IMR Senior Policy Advisor Vladimir Kara-Murza, the illegitimacy of the Bolshevik usurpation of power still lies at the heart of Russia’s political system.

Details: Nation

Yuri Schmidt (1937–2013)

Details: 14 January 2013

Eminent Russian lawyer Yuri Markovich Schmidt has died in St. Petersburg at the age of 75. “A lawyer by profession and a defender of human rights by fiat of conscience,” was how legendary dissident Vladimir Bukovsky referred to him. Schmidt was involved with the human rights movement since the 1960s. Those whom he represented in courts in the 1990s and 2000s included Alexander Nikitin and the families of Galina Starovoitova and Sergei Yushenkov. Since 2004, Schmidt represented Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The farewell ceremony for Yuri Schmidt will take place between 11am and 1pm on January 16 at the House of Architect in St. Petersburg (52, Bolshaya Morskaya Street.)

Details: Politics

We All Come Out from the Overcoat (On the Prospects for the Russian Opposition)

Details: 14 January 2013; Alexander Podrabinek

At the start of 2013, protest sentiments in Russian society are alive and well, but the inability of opposition leaders to give these sentiments an organized form and their late reaction to events reduce the chances of success. According to author and analyst Alexander Podrabinek, the prospects for the Russian protest movement will depend to a large extent on self-organization and the search for new forms of opposition activity.

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