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This research paper examines the conceptual and legal aspects of project-oriented public administration, focusing on the Russian experience and comparing it with practices from the USA, UK, and Malaysia from 2011 to 2020. The study aims to identify specific features of project-oriented public administration, provide a comparative analysis of methodologies for managing national projects, and formulate recommendations for improving legal mechanisms based on national experiences from both developed and developing states. The research highlights the formation and implementation of public administration aimed at realizing national projects, emphasizing the establishment of public and legal foundations for their implementation. Using a comparative case study approach, the study employs document analysis, secondary sources, and expert interviews to examine the legal frameworks, organizational structures, implementation challenges, and performance metrics of project management in the selected countries. The findings reveal significant differences in the legal frameworks and implementation practices across the four countries, with Russia showing a fragmented legal framework primarily governed by federal laws and presidential decrees. In contrast, the UK and USA have more comprehensive legal frameworks with detailed regulations, and Malaysia's framework focuses on government-led initiatives with clear procedural regulations. The paper concludes by proposing recommendations for improving the legal and institutional frameworks for projectoriented public administration in Russia, including systematizing and consolidating its legal framework, improving coordination among government levels, investing in capacity building, and enhancing engagement with the private sector and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) has become a popular, positivist approach to studying how narratives affect the policy process over the past 10 years. In this paper, we critically evaluate its applicability in an authoritarian context. We employ a mixed-method approach to, first, present some of the narrative elements employed by principal actors in the policy debate according to the NPF, derived through quantitative content analysis, and second, to critically contrast these findings by drawing on qualitative data. The policy we examine is Moscow's contentious Renovation program, which aims to demolish many of the city's Soviet-era five story 'Kruschovsky' apartment blocks and resettle residents in new apartments. The quantitative content analysis is derived from several online government sources and that of the principal opponent of the Renovation program, an online group called 'Moscovites Against Demolition'. The qualitative data are derived from a district in Southwest Moscow, where the first Kruschovsky apartments were developed and has locally seen vocal opposition to the Renovation program and other redevelopment projects. This study highlights the limitations of the NPF and argues that by examining the performative nature of policy narratives, we can gain greater insight into the political strategies and context that underwrite these narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, views regarding cyberspace and the usage of digital means by governments shifted from hopes of cyber-utopias to fears of cyberdystopias, fuelled by increasingly heavy limitations imposed on Internet freedoms and online privacy rights worldwide, a tightening grip of authoritarian regimes on cyberspace, disinformation campaigns, censorship, internet shutdowns, digitally-enabled mass surveillance both online and offline and so on. Thus, the discussion will be centred on Russia's and China's usage and export of digital authoritarianism, while also considering steps taken by liberal democracies to counter such actions, focusing on the role of the US and of the E U a nd i ts m ember-states. This paper will start with a literature review regarding digital authoritarianism and an exploration of how Russia and China are using and exporting it. States such as Russia and China are using digital means to bolster and expand their authoritarian regimes, while also exporting digital authoritarianism to other like-minded governments around the world, creating an unignorable challenge for liberal democracies and civil society groups everywhere. Finally, the paper will also address potential courses of action and policies that liberal democracies and international organisations can take for countering digital authoritarianism. For instance, they should promote an alternative model for digital governance and governance through digital means, starting by promoting digital liberties and privacy rights instead of trying to limit them for national security purposes (e.g., the case of encryption). Thus, liberal democracies should respond to digital authoritarianism by further bolstering democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of cultural development in general, as well as the features of management in the social-cultural sphere, have become especially relevant in recent years in connection with introducing quarantine measures related to spreading COVID-19 in the world, Russia's military actions in Ukraine and economic and political changes in the world. State authorities in many countries attach particular importance to the issue of forming an effective management environment for social-cultural activities. They put forward new high requirements for training specialists in this field, which would meet the challenges of time and the development trends of the world community. In particular, the sphere of musical culture in many countries of the world is recognized as a state priority, since it is the basis of society's cultural, spiritual, social, political and economic development. The social-cultural sphere, as a system of state and public institutions, is responsible for the state of developing and functioning of the state and society. The purpose of the academic paper is to clarify the features of foreign and domestic practice of managing social-cultural activities, highlighting the principal factors, problems and prospects for developing this field. In the course of the research, bibliographic and analytical methods were used to study scientific literature on managing social-cultural activities. Along with this, induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis of information, system-structural, comparative, logical-linguistic methods, abstraction, and idealization were applied to study and process data. Moreover, the research authors conducted a questionnaire in online mode, in the course of which the viewpoint of scientists conducting research in the field of managing social-cultural processes and heads of cultural and educational institutions working in Ukraine and abroad was studied regarding the key practical aspects of this issue. Based on the research results, the main and most important theoretical aspects of implementing cultural practices of social-cultural work, primarily in the area of musical art, have been established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The treatment of Jews by the state and society in Russia is an important measure of Russia's civic and political character. The evidence presented in this paper indicates that Russian Jews now enjoy the greatest freedom from antisemitism in modern Russian history. The explanation for the decline of antisemitism is found in two categories: the political and the societal. At the level of "high politics," the post-Soviet Russian state has abandoned Soviet policies that promoted or condoned the persecution and discrimination of Jews. This development was preceded and reinforced by the bottom-up growth in Russian society of a more tolerant attitude toward Jews. The first two sections of the paper explain the decline in antisemitism at elite and mass levels in Russia, underscoring mutually supportive institutional, political, and socio-cultural changes. The final part of the paper suggests that public expressions of antisemitism may re-emerge due to the weakening of the factors that have thus far restrained this prejudice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how urban Russians perceive, negotiate, challenge and reaffirm the political configuration of the country and leadership in terms of the 'imagined nation'. Based on around 100 interviews in three Russian cities, three main pillars appear to prop up the imagined 'pro-Putin' social contract: (i) the belief that 'delegating' all power into the hands of the President is the best way to discipline and mould state and society; (ii) the acceptance of Putin's carefully crafted image as a 'real man', juxtaposed against negative views of the Russian 'national character'; (iii) the internalization of a pro-Putin mythology on a 'government of saviors' that delivers normality and redeems a 'once-ruined' nation. The paper shows that those who reject these pillars do so due to differing views on what constitutes 'normality' in politics. This normative split is examined over a number of issues, leading to a discussion of internal orientalism and the limited success of state media agitation in winning over the skeptical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The growing trend towards closing the political space for civil society in authoritarian regimes has primarily targeted NGOs focused on rights-based advocacy. Drawing on a study of disability NGOs in Russia, this paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the advocacy options that nonprofit organizations have even in repressive political contexts. The authors first review the extant literature to identify common actors, types and tactics and then trace what types of advocacy Russian NGOs are engaged in and what tactics they are able to utilize. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical part of this paper is based on 20 interviews conducted among active participants in disability NGOs in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm and Nizhniy Novgorod. Despite not being a representative sample of organizations, the selection of cities and organizations was intended to reflect spatial and structural factors of the field. Findings: The authors find that NGOs are able to pursue a broad range of advocacy activities despite a generally restrictive legal environment for civil society. Research limitations/implications: Research on advocacy in authoritarian countries is often focused on NGOs that are primarily engaged in these activities. This has overshadowed the considerable leeway that nonprofit service providers have to engage in advocacy. Practical implications: Service-providing NGOs should not forsake advocacy activities, even in authoritarian contexts, but can find access points in the political system and should seek to utilize their voice on behalf of their clients. Social implications: Despite general restrictions, NGOs can still find ways to successfully secure social rights, justice and solidarity, provided they accept the supremacy of the state in social policy and appeal to the state's responsibility for the welfare of its citizens without directly questioning the overall status quo too heavily. Originality/value: We develop a broad framework for various advocacy forms and activities and apply it to nonprofit service providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess what an overview of theoretical literature and case study material can tell us about the different ways crime has been organised in the past in different cultures and whether this has any impact on the ways in which crime may be organised in the present and the future. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on an examination of Mcintyre’s work on how crime is organised and later political, economic and civil society views of criminality. Brief discussion of case studies involving the UK, The Netherlands, the Arab world, Ethiopia and Russia is used to see how crime was organised there in the past. Findings – There is a greater variety of variables in the way crime was organised historically than McIntyre suggests, and an examination of civil society might pay greater dividends than even looking at politics or economic aspects of organised crime. Research limitations/implications – The study is preliminary. More historical case study material needs to be accessed. Originality/value – There are many research case studies, particularly at PhD level and in subjects other than criminology, such as history, language studies and cultural studies generally, which have not been brought together to present an overall picture. This paper is a first step in that direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Traditional Islam" has emerged in the post-Soviet Republic of Tatarstan (Russian Federation) as a powerful if contentious discursive trope. In this paper, I look at traditional Islam and its conceptual twin, "non-traditional Islam", as normative governmental tools aimed at defining acceptable or unwelcome form of religious commitment in an environment in which the rapid success of Sunni piety trends after socialism's end has exacerbated the anxieties of both state institutions and a predominantly secular public. Traditional Islam's multiple facets are explored, with particular attention given to the aspects of heritage-making, at the local (republican) level, and loyalty-fostering at the national (all-Russian) level. The concept's genealogy, spanning different phases of Soviet and post-Soviet history, is analysed in detail. In addition, I focus on the reception of the traditional/non-traditional Islam discourse amongst grassroots pious Muslims, highlighting instances of criticism, lampooning, rejection, but also qualified acceptance. The concluding sections of my paper touch on "theological" traditional Islam's potential and limitations for expanding civil society and harnessing grassroots enthusiasm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the post-Soviet transition, there was significant academic interest in organized civil society and the liberal opposition in Russia. In more recent years, attention has turned to more everyday and episodic forms of local activism by citizens with little history of involvement in politics. But how can we conceptualize the way in which these activists engage with the state? In this paper, we draw on relational approaches to the state from anthropology and geography and case study research with citizens who oppose construction projects in south-west Moscow, identifying three different dimensions of engagement: first, residents probe the state to examine the avenues that are susceptible to their demands; second, they act as brokers, establishing links between civil society and the state; and third, residents at times resist redevelopment by directly contesting particular construction works. These forms of engagement show how citizens struggle against and seek to tap into different elements of state power as they preserve their neighborhoods from unwanted forms of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society and environmental NGOs in Russia and China have been facing gradual crackdowns from their governments for the past decade and have been accused of being connected to foreign governments. Due to the changes in political and legal environments and the rise of a new generation of activists, the civil society landscape has been transformed in both countries. Drawing on 14 months of fieldwork, this paper aims to provide an updated account of environmental activism in Russia and China--the post-foreign-funding civil society. It focuses on grass-roots NGOs and their relationships with their foreign donors and the consequences of foreign grant withdrawal. The paper aims to understand how foreign support has shaped the image of environmental activism for the generation born shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the crackdown on the students' protests in Tiananmen Square. It argues that young activists in Russia and China see environmentalism as something 'foreign', which also makes it attractive to take part in. The paper suggests that, while in some cases foreign funding and international linkages may have endangered existing NGOs in Russia and China, the opportunity to meet foreigners attracts the younger generation to environmental movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition from totalitarian to post-totalitarian type of society requires profound changes not only within institutional frames but also in the mentality of a society. In the case of Russia it is not the matter of coming back to the civil society mechanisms but creating them from anew, as the kind of citizen – state relations had not been spread to the whole society before the Soviet Union times. Intelligentsia could be an agent of the changes towards post-totalitarian state and social order. In this paper questions about the intelligentsia’s status and role in the Russian society were posed. The idea of civil society coined in the times of the Decembrist was confronted with the mobilized type of governing. Intelligentsia, as perceived by the Russian society and experts on the one hand and its self portrait on the other hand were discussed. An important question concerned the role of the Russian political opposition as the intelligentsia’s ethos continuation. The conclusions were that the intelligentsia repeats the pattern which was first developed at the beginning of the 19th century: its idealistic members are ready to struggle for the common good but without common social support. The status of intelligentsia is perceived as high if about education and morality, but it diminishes when its leadership is concerned. In the Russian post-totalitarian society the state is still an agent to be followed. It takes Russians towards totalitarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the specifics of state management in the sphere of reproduction of the socio-professional structure of society. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on the provisions of neo-Marxism; structural and functional approach, ideas of the concept of constructing the cultural senses, neo-institutional approach, theory of institutional matrices. The paper uses the provisions of the theory of "path-dependence," in which the effect of institutional inertia of society and its influence on the management institutes are studied. During the research of the specifics of the Russian model of state management of the process of formation and development of professional and qualification potential of the country, the provisions of the concept of power-property are taken into account. Findings: The authors note that ineffectiveness of state management in the sphere of formation and development of professional and qualification potential of the Russian society is predetermined by historically established institutes of management and organization of life, which are peculiar for authoritarianism, bureaucracy, principles of redistributive economy, domination of the institutes of power-property and underdevelopment of the institutes of the civil society. This problem could be solved by modernizing the national model of state management based on well-balanced interaction of the basic and complementary socio-cultural institutes, which could increase the effectiveness of management of complex social processes. Originality/value: It is substantiated the main principles of the modern state regulation of the sphere of training of professional and qualification personnel should be as follows: strategic approach to management, partnership approach to managing education, investments into human capital, supporting the development of institutes of the civil society, debureaucratization of the system of management and formation of favorable legal and economic environment for development of entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To review and evaluate the transformation of Russia at the historical juncture of the 30th anniversary of the Soviet collapse is an essential task. Compared with political and economic transformation, social transformation is more complex, slower, and more uncertain. This paper seeks to examine Russia's social transformation from a totalitarian to a civil society from the perspective of the state-society relationship. Viewed from Western theories of civil society, the social transformation of Russia has not been a success: citizens have a low level of self-organization, civil rights are not genuinely guaranteed, and state power constantly intervenes in civil society. However, this transformation has achieved the goal of social solidarity. We need to reflect upon the concept of social transformation and gain an understanding of the structure of and changes in Russian society by taking into account its cultural logic and historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive national defence is a security concept, which is based on whole-of-society involvement, therefore the will of society to defend the state is a precondition for it to be effective. The will to defend the state is a moral commitment arising from national identity. However, Latvia's ethnic structure is setting specific circumstances for this security concept, due to the polarization of views among the Latvian and Russian-speaking communities. This paper addresses the question of how linguistic distinctions affect willingness to fight for a country and expands knowledge on identity patterns in an ethnically diverse society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource-rich dictatorships are more inclined to repress civil society than others. In this paper, we analyze the collapse and persistence of authoritarian regimes in terms of oil price shocks and the organizational density of civil society. This organizational density indicates the ability of citizens to credibly threaten the dictator with a revolution and therefore induce regime change. In the civil society protest game, regime change becomes likely in the occurrence of a negative oil price shock, whereas a positive oil shock increases the extractive capacity of the dictator, thus preserving the authoritarian status quo. In the civil society persecution game, repression of failed revolutionaries can avert revolution if a negative oil price shock occurs and the organizational density of civil society is low ex-ante. Historical and contemporary illustrations are drawn from Iran and Russia, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I analyze the Trump, Putin, and Zuma regimes as "thugocracies": projects of sophisticated state capture, through organized crime networks at every level of scale, and utilizing complex arrays of mafia tactics, personnel, and practices. With a basis in first-hand ethnography on the modalities of the mafia in Russia in the 1990s, I delineate critical interconnections between thugocrats operating in South Africa, the Russian Federation, and the United States, arguing that their networks are simultaneously local, extensively transnational, and closely intertwined. Though thugocratic regimes target the rule of law and civil society in order to "make crime legal," I conclude that inquiries like the South African Zondo Commission help create public outrage and awareness of the threat thugocracy poses to democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 25 years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, sweeping political, economic, and social changes have profoundly influenced environmental protection in Russia, the world’s largest country and one of global importance with respect to natural resources, biodiversity conservation, wilderness preservation, and climate change mitigation. This paper reviews the state of the environment by assessing post-Soviet era changes to legislation, government regulatory institutions, and civil society. A gulf exists between Russia’s formal environmental laws and state agency capacity and interest in enforcing them. This stems, in part, from repeated bureaucratic reorganizations that have progressively eroded environmental institutions. The Russian environmental movement, which blossomed during Gorbachev’s reforms in the late 1980s, struggled in the 1990s to mobilize the broader public due to economic hardship and political instability. Since then, the Putin administration has labeled many environmental groups “anti-Russian” and used aggressive tactics such as raiding NGO offices, intimidating journalists, and instituting severe legislative measures to quash advocacy and dissent. Post-Soviet environmental successes have been relatively few, with expansion of the protected area system and forest certification notable exceptions. These successes can partially be attributed to efforts by large environmental organizations, but expansion of certification and corporate social responsibility is also tied to Russian business interests dependent on natural resource export to global markets increasingly sensitive to environmental concerns. The paper concludes by illustrating how corruption, poor enforcement, and the muzzling of civil society render the state incapable of resolving arguably its most significant environmental challenge: illegal and unregulated resource use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term “civil society” in Russia is often taken to refer to civic organisations and movements created during and after the break-up of the Soviet Union, and is sometimes equated narrowly with “NGOs” – registered non-government, non-commercial, or public organisations. This paper attempts to look at civil society more widely. It considers both registered organisations and more spontaneous/informal civic actions; and follows local experts in challenging the idea that Russian civil society began in 1989–91. The paper considers both recent developments on the ground, and analyses by historians, sociologists, and political scientists that go back to soviet and pre-soviet periods. Société civile russe : toile de fond, actualité et perspectives futures L'expression « société civile » en Russie est souvent interprétée comme se référant aux organisations et mouvements civiques créés durant et après le morcellement de l'Union soviétique, et elle est souvent étroitement assimilée aux « ONG » - organisations immatriculées non gouvernementales, non commerciales ou publiques. Cet article tente d'examiner la société civile de manière plus large. Il considère à la fois des organisations immatriculées et des actions civiques plus spontanées/informelles ; et il emboîte le pas à des experts locaux en mettant en question l'idée selon laquelle la société civile russe est née en 1989–91. Cet article se penche à la fois sur les récents progrès sur le terrain et sur les analyses menées par des historiens, des sociologues et des politologues qui remontent aux périodes soviétique et pré-soviétique. La sociedad civil rusa: antecedentes y prospectivas actuales y futuras Frecuentemente, en Rusia se utiliza el término “sociedad civil” para referirse a organizaciones y a movimientos cívicos creados durante y después del colapso de la Unión Soviética, a veces equiparándose estrechamente con “ONG”—organizaciones públicas, no gubernamentales, no comerciales y registradas. El presente artículo pretende examinar a la sociedad civil más amplia. En este sentido, revisa tanto las organizaciones registradas como las acciones cívicas, informales y más espontáneas; también da cuenta de la opinión de los expertos locales, quienes cuestionan la idea de que la sociedad civil rusa comenzó en 1989–1991. El artículo examina los acontecimientos que han ocurrido recientemente sobre el terreno, así como aquellos análisis hechos por historiadores, sociólogos y científicos políticos que se remontan a los periódicos soviético y presoviético. Sociedade civil russa: experiências passadas, perspectivas atuais e futuras O termo “sociedade civil” na Rússia é frequentemente usado para se referir a organizações e movimentos civis criados durante e após o colapso da União Soviética e às vezes é quase equiparado a “ONGs” – Organizações Não-Governamentais registradas, organizações não-comerciais ou organizações públicas. Este artigo visa examinar a sociedade civil mais amplamente. Ele considera tanto as organizações registradas quanto as ações civis mais espontâneas/informais; e segue especialistas locais que contestam a ideia de que a sociedade civil russa teve início em 1989–91. O artigo considera os desdobramentos recentes na base e análises de historiadores, sociólogos e cientistas políticos que regressam para os períodos soviéticos e pré-soviéticos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil societies are usually seen as facilitators of democracy or as oppositional powers withstanding authoritarian rule. However, more and more often civil society organizations (CSOs) appear to contribute to the legitimacy of non-democratic incumbents. Taking the example of contemporary Russia, this paper argues that state funding for CSOs under authoritarian regime conditions serves for securing regime legitimacy in two respects—by supporting CSOs contribution to public welfare and by transmitting state-led legitimacy discourse to the civil society sector. The analysis of applications submitted between 2013 and 2016 to the Presidential Grant Competition (PGC), the biggest public funding programme for CSOs in Russia, shows that the state is (1) supporting CSO activities above all in social, health and education-related fields, and (2) privileging projects that relate to a state-led conservative public discourse not only but foremost within those welfare-related fields. These results highlight the importance of investigating state support to CSOs in order to access the changing role of civil society under authoritarian regime conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines historical context and cultural, political, and economic forces affecting attempts to democratize education in post-Soviet Russia. It has been defined that long-standing traditions of autocratic rule have cultivated a mentality of habitual dependence on authority and power, which poses many challenges to a cultural shift toward democratic values. Lacking experience in functional political democracy or cultivation of democracy in civil society, modern Russia remains insular, viewing the democratic West with suspicion and distrust. There have been defined the main impediments to progress in education democratization, such as cuts in state funding, deteriorating working conditions for academic staff, decline in prestige of teaching and higher education, corrupt licensing and accreditation issues, and the discrepancy between market demands and the capacity of the educational system to meet those needs. Attempts to introduce democratic principles often flounder in the wake of traditions of authoritarian rule, stagnation, political hypocrisy and apathy. Despite a simulation of democracy in Russian institutional processes, tight state control of the media and public skepticism of outside sources of information hamper efforts to emulate liberal democratic institutions and practices. It has been outlined that there have been tangible transformations in access to education and independence from rigid state control, but these have come with new challenges of coping with decentralization, insufficient funding, antiquated infrastructure, and the need for modern technology. Corruption and resistance to changes persist, while piecemeal reforms have lacked systematic strategy. It has been substantiated that civicminded, progressive education, sustained by a shift to democratic tendencies in the national culture, is critical to freeing Russia from its totalitarian past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Pacifism in Russia has historically been weak due to several factors, among which the scares development of civil servative ideology of the maiority of their citizens and the authoritarian nature of their different governments and regimes stand out. Despite the previously described facts, this region has also made surprising and valuable contributions to the cause of peace throughout history, which are worth rescuing and are depicted in this article as precedents of the present day local peace movement. Later on, this paper introduces and describes the current struggle of peace groups both in Russia and Ukraine, emphasizing how activism against the War in Ukraine is particularly complicated in the repressive context of nationalism and war-mongering exaltation in these countries, as well as in an international scenario of crisis of pacifism and boom of narratives that promote the rearmament of the West for fear of the military and economic development of Russia and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2021 urban political protests in Russia in support of Alexei Navalny have swept the country, beginning in the Far East and reaching Moscow. They, however, displayed large variation in the number of protesters taking to the streets in the country's regional capitals. While the immediate driver of urban protests is usually a political event or a decision of authorities, the willingness to protest accumulates before that, creating protest potential. To explain why some Russian regional capitals accumulate protest potential while others do not, we perform Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 53 cases. It reveals that a high share of young and educated people and the presence of organized civil society, but not the Internet consumption or the performance of city authorities, are crucial for the accumulation of protest potential in Russian regional capitals. These findings advance our understanding of urban political potential in autocracies as well as of Russia's political geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses post-Soviet Russian nation building through examining the contradictions of 'ethnic' and 'civic' nation building processes. In so doing, this paper argues Shevel's (2011) characterization of post-Soviet Russia's nation-building as 'purposefully ambiguous', further discussing the legal framework of Russia's nation building and contemporary policies of the Russian government. As a result, this article proposes to characterize post-Soviet Russian nation building as a 'sufficiently flexible' combination of controversial ethnic and civic nationalisms with 'a Russian flavour'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should Russia become part of the West, or follow an Eastern path? This has been a centuries-old discussion among Russian intellectuals. For Westernizers in Russia, the "West" symbolized progress, freedom, democracy, civil society, normality, and a nation-state. Their opponents saw the West as representing moral decadence in the beginning, and later capitalist exploitation. This paper attempts to lay out the foundations and the evolution of the 200-year-old discussion of Russia's place in the world. It briefly examines the period of Muscovite Russia, where the foundations of the authoritarian state tradition were laid and further strengthened. The paper then focuses on the period of Peter the Great's reign, in which educated Russians became increasingly acquainted with Western European culture and started having doubts about Russia's status in the face of perceived European superiority. Trying to summarize how the international and internal developments of the 1800s and 1900s have affected the debate about Russia's place between East and West, the paper then examines the current state of discussions in Russia under Putin's leadership and finally attempts to make predictions for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is two-fold. In its first part, it gives a description of the main civil society actors of local and regional cross-border cooperation in the Estonian-Russian border area, which encompasses the Russian administrative regions of Pskov and Leningrad and the eastern Estonian counties of Ida-Virumaa, Jogevamaa, Tartumaa and Polvamaa. It analyses their motivations and the main factors that affect the dynamics of their cooperation. The second part of the paper addresses the perceptions of representatives of civil society organizations with regard to the role of the EU in promoting cross-border cooperation on the EU external border, its support for civil society organization (CSO) cooperation activities and its way of engaging CSOs in the implementation of its policies for cross-border cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the evolution of Russia's civil society during the presidency of Vladimir Putin. The paper utilises a complex definitional prism that views civil society in terms of three independent but inextricably interconnected pillars. It examines civil society as a kind of society, a part of society, and as a distinct public sphere as seen in the set of institutional norms and forms. The paper empirically challenges the existing conclusions in that the three spheres must develop in concert and cannot exist without a permanent fully-fledged interaction. The discussion reveals the unbalanced evolution of the three spheres in Russia and the potential problems that this situation might cause in the longer term. The paper also claims that, while the development of some of these spheres gives grounds for concern, others provide hopes for cautious optimism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rose's and Mishler and Rose's ‘hourglass’ construction of post-Soviet Russian society illustrates that the civil space traditionally occupied by advocacy and community groups continues to be constricted. Such groups fail to successfully bridge the space between the individual and the state, thereby holding the fledgling Russian democracy to account. In this paper, to shed light on reasons for the continuing constriction of Russian civil space, the behavior of the environmental movement in one Russian region — Samara Oblast — is observed through the lens of social capital. By utilizing Adler and Kwon's schema for assessing the benefits and risks arising from social capital stocks possessed by collectives, it will illustrate that the Russian environmental movement is inward looking and parochial; built on pre-existing friendships or elite connections; and uninterested in forming a mass movement or actively engaging with the Russian public. Moreover, rather than being situated within the constricted civil space of Russian society, the majority of groups within the Samara environmental movement are themselves situated firmly in either half of the hourglass. Groups within each half successfully span gaps between each other, but no activity is undertaken to bridge or reshape the constricted space between the halves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main question of this article is how Vladimir Putin's state manages and controls Russian civil society. For research theory, this article applies Antonio Gramsci's conception of "integral" or "dual" state, which combines institutional incorporation and co-optation of loyal civic groups with coercion (oppressive legislation and security forces) against those who do not consent with the regime. In terms of the state institutional incorporation of civil society, this research examines top-down civic intermediary and informal institutions such as the Public Chamber, the Presidential Council for Human Rights, and especially the All-Russia People's Front. These civic organizations help Putin maintain his authoritarian equilibrium between state apparatus and society by imitating the bottom-up control over the state bureaucracy and partially substituting functions of weak formal institutions, including the State Duma and the United Russia ruling party. In terms of the state coercive practices vis-à-vis independent civic groups, this paper analyzes the implementation of the 2012 "foreign agents" law. This research reveals that, although independent NGOs are systematically persecuted and inspected by the police and the Russian Ministry of Justice, they find different ways to avoid the coercive legislation and even cooperate with the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU's borderland between Finland and Russia provides a fascinating setting to study how different understandings of state and civil society meet, overlap, and fuse. Focusing on this border region, this study pits the conventional bilateral framework against the more recent EU one in depicting a cross-border space for civic activity. It offers a critical perspective on the official European Neighbourhood and illustrates a complementary vision of a non-territorial civic neighbourhood seeking to capture the networked and fluid topologies of contemporary cross-border processes. The paper underlines the role of civil society in bridging the gaps created by borders, and suggests that they provide a powerful driver for maintaining neighbourly relations in a tense climate. To better understand the transnational network-space they fashion, we must abandon the geographical idea of territorial exceptionality and be receptive to alternative interpretations not tied to a particular policy framework and the restrictions defined by it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a comparative analysis of how highly differentiated regions of Russia perform in terms of economic development, public services delivery and overall quality of governance while linking these factors to levels of political support for the current incumbent during the latest presidential electoral campaign in 2018. It introduces the subnational Good Governance Rank to facilitate comparison of distinct regions on a comparable basis. Additionally, author studies the “economy- state-clientelism” triangle in the modern Russian setting to confirm previous findings from Mexico, Argentina, Cambodia, Germany, United Kingdom and other countries to reveal the typical behavior pattern: politicians favor the poor (because its cheap), citizens favor stalemate (because change is risky) and clientelism coerces and buys (because it’s a time-tested mechanism). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the problem of the development of lobbyism as a political institution in modern Russia. and identifies their place and purpose. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to determine what transformations need to be carried out in the political life of Russian society, so that lobbyism acquires the features of a modern and efficient institution that actively promotes the development of business, society and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is devoted to certain issues connected to Post-Communist anthropology, focusing in particular on the ambiguous consequences of what is commonly defined as the "de-utopianism" process in contemporary Russia. By means of an analysis of samples taken from influential literary works by current authors (such as V. Pelevin and VI. Sorokin), attention will be drawn to human types, to their anthropological and psychological characterization on the background of the harsh transition period following the fall of the USSR. The contradictory images depicted in the literary texts also express the deep heritage of the Communist past and the current weakness of Russian civil society, deeply conditioned by drastic social and cultural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transforming social perceptions of those repressed by the Soviet regime in the late eighties, prompted urgent action to deal with difficult Soviet heritage, especially with landscapes of the dead buried in mass graves. However, human engagement in transforming these traumaspaces revealed that these landscapes had already been transformed by nonhuman actants - plants and trees -- often as witnesses to the crimes themselves. Therefore, in planning their commemorations, human memory activists had to negotiate the landscape with non-human actants and often attribute some human significance to the memory work they performed. This article discusses how Soviet traumaspaces were slowly transformed from non-human commemorations to commemorations meticulously planned by humans. From the very beginning, these human commemorations used both religious and secular languages. However, when the state actively engaged in the commemoration of the victims of Soviet repressions after 2015, a new constellation of power relations between civil society, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the state emerged, which, over time, led to the appearance of post-secular commemorations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]