Putin Is in Trouble
(NYTimes) In the wake of a stunning counteroffensive in which Ukrainian forces reclaimed thousands of square miles of territory, Russia is uneasy. The country’s political talk shows, usually so deferential, have given the…
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Laruelle
115 posts
Imperializing Russia: Empire by Default or Design?
President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine is both a strategic conflict with the West to reshape the post-Cold War European order and an identity project for Russia. While the strategic…
Russia expert: West needs to self-reflect on its own responsibility in Ukraine war
(Courthouse News) Marlene Laruelle, the director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University, says the West needs to look at itself in the mirror…
Manufacturing Support for War: Russia’s Preppers, Fellow Travelers, and Activist Networks
The impact on Russia of its war against Ukraine is heavier than President Vladimir Putin anticipated, both in terms of military losses and economic isolation. The survival of the regime…
Disinformation and Religion on the Russian Scene: Reactionary Politics and Orthodox Fundamentalism
(Berkley Center) The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the production of disinformation on Russia’s media scene. Religion has played a role in this development. The Moscow Patriarchate, which has backed state…
Beyond “hybrid warfare”: a digital exploration of Russia’s entrepreneurs of influence
(Post-Soviet Affairs) This article argues that to capture Russia’s influence abroad, one needs to comprehend the country’s “gray diplomacy” as a neoliberal realm open to individual initiatives. We define “entrepreneurs…
Central Peripheries: Nationhood in Central Asia
(UCL Press) Central Peripheries explores post-Soviet Central Asia through the prism of nation-building. Although relative latecomers on the international scene, the Central Asian states see themselves as globalized, and yet in…
Russia’s African Toolkit: Digital Influence and Entrepreneurs of Influence
(Orbis) Today, Russian influence on the African continent is still anecdotic compared to the People’s Republic of China, the United States, and former colonial powers, such as France. Yet, Moscow…
Russia’s Niche Soft Power: Sources, Targets and Channels of Influence
(Ifri) This paper argues that Russia’s soft power should be understood as a niche soft power, microtargeting some specific audiences based on four particularisms: Russia’s history and culture; its Soviet legacy;…
PONARS Eurasia Online Academy: Grassroots Nationalist Movements in Russia
Authored by Marlene Laruelle, “Grassroots Nationalism in Contemporary Russia,” is an educational video in a new series designed to provide succinct overviews of policy-relevant research and contemporary scholarship on Russia…