On
paper, Russia’s political system is an impressive reproduction of Western
representative democracy, while the Chinese system remains an unreconstructed
autocracy. The reality of the situation is much more complex, says Ivan
Krastev.
Russian NGOs have traditionally looked abroad for their
funding, and are dismayed at recent legislation setting up new barriers to this
practice. Almut Rochowanski argues, however, that this should be seen as a
challenge to increase the involvement of the Russian public in the development
of civil society.
In Putin’s Russia, NGOs funded from
abroad are now officially considered ‘foreign agents’. However a recent poll
suggests that the Russian public’s attitude to them is rather less one-sided.
Vladimir Zvonovsky reports from Samara.
The monarchy, the political and economic systems, even the judiciary and the
church appear to be failing the people of Spain as they face what amounts to a
right-wing coup by a Government that legislates by decree. Their only option
seems to be to protest on the streets, says Liz Cooper.
President Morsi’s latest constitutional declaration, even if
it is cloaked in democratic and revolutionary rhetoric, presages a slide to
authoritarianism, argues Mariz Tadros.
With more than 3,000 post graduate students studying migration in Europe each year, a more holistic approach to teaching migration must be part of the solution to help uphold migrants’ human rights, argues Agata Patyna.
Culture today is dependent
on shock, excess, instant effect, and the avoidance of intellectual effort. If
the plastic arts are notably trivial and befuddling, literature, music, and
cinema lag not far behind.
Navalny’s campaigns against corruption and his clever campaigning have won him a central role in the protests against Putin. But Navalny has also many critics. In his controversial article Daniil Kotsyubinsky, who saw how Navalny’s nationalism ruined a previous protest wave, wonders whether his programme might not end up destroying the democratic movement.
Just before the last Moscow demonstration on December 24, two of the protest movement’s most popular leaders — writer Boris Akunin and politician-blogger Aleksey Navalny — got together for a fascinating public conversation. The three-part interview, published on Akunin’s blog, is arguably the fullest profile of Russia’s leading opposition politician and covers many of the more uncomfortable aspects of Navalny’s politics. ODR is pleased to present the full English translation of the interviews.
The recent wave of demonstrations against election fraud across Russia were preceded in the spring and autumn by protests from grassroots fishermen’s organisations, who marched to defend their right to fish for free. Authorities soon climbed down from their controversial plans to privatise rivers and lakes, but not before radicalising an estimated 15-20 million amateur fishermen, writes Oleg Pavlov.
It is no coincidence that the wave of protests comes in the wake of a 'democratic recession'. People are increasingly demanding democracy in the Arab world, and also in the west.
Mono-cultural nationalism can no longer provide us with the national identities we need. The formation of multi-cultural civic identities requires a new way of drawing our political maps.