Russian Politics Today: Stability and Fragility provides an accessible and nuanced introduction to contemporary Russian politics at a time of increasing uncertainty. Using the theme of stability versus fragility as its overarching framework, this innovative textbook explores the forces that shape Russia's politics, economy, and society. The volume provides up-to-date coverage of core themes – Russia's strong presidency, its weak party system, the role of civil society, and its dependence on oil and gas revenues – alongside path-breaking chapters on the politics of race, class, gender, sexuality, and the environment. An international and diverse team of experts presents the most comprehensive available account of the evolution of Russian politics in the post-Soviet era, providing the tools for interpreting the past and the present while also offering a template for understanding future developments.

In the realm of political discourse there is a distinct gap in understanding between Russia and the West. To an outsider, the ideas that animate the actions of Russia's ruling elite, opposition, and civil society - from the motivations driving Russia's political actors to the class structure and international and domestic constraints that shape Russia's political thinking - remain shrouded in mystery. Contrary to the view that a bleak discursive uniformity reigns in Vladimir Putin's Russia, Political Ideologies in Contemporary Russia shows that the country is engaging in serious theoretical debates across a wide spectrum of modern ideologies including liberalism, nationalism, feminism, and multiculturalism. Elena Chebankova argues that the nation is fragmented and the state seeks to balance the various ideological movements to ensure that none dominates. She shows that each of the main ideological trends is far from uniform, but the major opposition is between liberalism and traditionalism. The pluralistic picture she describes contests many current portrayals of Russia as an authoritarian or even totalitarian state. Offering an alternative to the Western lens through which to view global politics, Political Ideologies in Contemporary Russia is a major contribution to our understanding of this world power.

A comprehensive reader composed of landmark selections, guided by the insight that to understand contemporary Russia, students need to know that there are strongly competing interpretations of Russian politics, both past and present.

Highly regarded for its comprehensive coverage, up-to-date scholarship, and comparative framework, Politics in Russia is an authoritative overview of Russia's contemporary political system and its recent evolution.Area specialist Thomas Remington focuses on four areas of change in this text state structure, regime change, economic transformation, and identity to offer a dynamic context for analyzing the post-Soviet era. With a consistent emphasis on the intersection of politics and economics and the tension between authoritarian and democratic trends, no other text guides students through the complexities and ambiguities of Russian politics today like Politics in Russia.

This book explores the politics of conservative Christian churches and social movements in Russia and the United States, focusing on their similar concerns but very different modes of political engagement. Whilst secularisation continues to chip away at religious adherence and practice in Europe, religion is often, quite rightly, seen as an influential force in the politics of the United States, and, more questionably, as a significant influence in contemporary Russia. This book looks at the broad social movement making up the US Christian Right and the profoundly hierarchical leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church as socially conservative actors, and some of the ways they have engaged in contemporary politics. Both are seeking to halt the perceived drift towards a more secular political order; both face significant challenges in handling the consequences of secularism, pluralism and liberal individualism; and both believe that their nations can only be great if they remain true to their religious heritage. In exploring their experience, the book focuses on shared and different elements in their diagnosis of what is wrong with their societies and how this affects their policy intervention over issues such as religious and ethnic belonging, sexual orientation and education. Drawing on political, sociological and religious studies, this work will be a useful reference for students and scholars of religion and politics, Russian politics and American politics.

Fully up-to-date to reflect the evolving Medvedev presidency, the 2008 Georgian war and the impact of the economic downturn, this volume is a much needed objective and balanced examination of the ways in which security has played, and continues to play, a central role in contemporary Russian politics.

This book explores Russia's role in world politics. In recent years, Moscow has played an increasingly active and assertive role in geopolitics. Examples include Russia’s takeover of Crimea and meddling in eastern Ukraine; Russia’s military intervention in Syria and support for the Assad government; the Kremlin’s alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential race; the pursuit of closer economic and diplomatic ties with China; and Russia’s ambitious military reforms and nuclear brinkmanship.Not surprisingly, Russia’s role in world politics has become the object of a spirited debate among Western policymakers, think-tank analysts, and academics. Much of this debate focuses on one central question: What are the main drivers, or causes, of Moscow’s recent assertiveness? The contributions gathered here address this question by focusing on the interplay of power, ideas, and domestic influences. Previously published in International Politics Volume 56, issue 6, December 2019

Many authors have alluded to the unique nature of Russia’s dual transition and its difficult task of simultaneously reforming its economy and polity. But there is in fact a third transition still far from completed that is of no less importance, the need to reconfigure central-regional relations and to create a stable and viable form of federalism. There are vast economic, demographic and political variations across the Russian federation. Therefore an understanding of regions, and the causes and consequences of cross-regional diversity, is a vitally important dimension of Russian politics that should not be overlooked. It is only by studying regional level politics that we can gain a full understanding of the complexities of Russia’s protracted transition. This edited volume examines regional politics and centre-regional relations over the period 2000-2010, including the most recent developments which have taken place under the new dual leadership of Medvedev and Putin. All eight chapters have been written by leading experts in the field of Russian politics. In addition to chapters on regional elections, parties, regional governors and local politics, there are three chapters devoted to the important developments which are currently taking place in the Caucasus. This book was published as a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies.

This book analyzes the nature of Russia’s involvement with globalization. To date, Russia has mainly followed a course of selective openness governed by an increasingly strong state pursuing self-determination and its own vision of strategic objectives and forms of cooperation, rather than the projected reproduction of global convergence. It is also a country that is believed to be finding a new place and position for itself in the evolving global order, where European and American reflections shape the treatment of contemporary questions concerning Russia’s status in the world. The book highlights the problems and conflicts associated with political developments, democratization, economic reforms, and innovation, as well as societal perceptions and national identity formation. The world is shifting, with Russia developing its own vision of global politics and cultivating a pragmatic strategy based on national interest, one that supports globalization where necessary and opposes it where conflicts of interest and values are inevitable.

In Volume Three of this four-volume series, we examine the rhetorical development that occurred during the first two terms of Vladimir Putin’s tenure as president of the Russian Federation. Initially, Putin appeared to follow in the path set by his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, vowing that Russia was, at heart, a European nation and would be a westward facing democracy going forward. He even mentioned partnering with the EU and NATO. Eight years later, at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, Putin excoriated the West for, in his words, attempting to create a “unipolar world” in which NATO expansion threatened Russia’s security, the United States acted as the world’s sole “hegemon,” and Europe simply followed orders, relinquishing any sense of agency in its own affairs.