Civiliki

Russia as a Rhizome State

My review of Alena Ledeneva’s Can Russia Modernize? Sistema, Power Networks, and Informal Governance for Russia Direct, “Sistema: How power works in modern Russia,” In

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On Putin’s Bulldogs

This week’s Russia Magazine! column, “Putin’s Bulldogs and Their Bones,” In reference to the succession struggle after Stalin’s death, Winston Churchill famously compared the opaqueness

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Medvedev’s Generation

If history is any indication, a gerontocracy can kill a political system.  The Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc states suffered from it.  It currently

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Clan Illogic

Jeffrey Tayler takes up clanology in his article “The Master and Medvedev” in hopes to map the innards of Kremlin Inc (hat tip to James

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A Conspiracy Behind the Rumor?

The political fallout from Moskovskii Korrespondent‘s rumor about Putin dumping his wife Liudmila for contortionist extraordinaire and Olympic medalist Alina Kabaeva is taking political shape. 

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