Early Spring Galvanization
The largest street protests in five years took place in Moscow and almost one hundred other locations following Alexei Navalny’s Anticorruption Foundation’s publishing a report accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption. Although the protests were curbed by the police, they played into Navalny’s presidential campaign less than a year ahead of the potential election.
Russia launched large-scale celebrations to mark the third anniversary of the Crimean peninsula’s inclusion in the Russian Federation. As time passes the Crimea becomes more integrated in the Russian state but the entire annexation still requires extra effort in terms of legitimization.
Russia is making a big push to take the lead in Arctic region development. It is increasing its public and private investment in Arctic natural resource extraction, transportation and security infrastructure. Organizing the Arctic Forum, with both Putin and Medvedev participating, and with other Arctic heads of state and senior foreign diplomats in Russia invited, was intended to showcase Russia’s ambitions in the region.
A large majority of Russians still support the retaliatory sanctions banning food and agriculture imports from countries that initially imposed economic sanctions against Russia, but that support is deteriorating from year to year. Moscow and St. Petersburg are the least supportive of the counter-sanctions compared to other regions of the country.
Now read on...
Register to sample a report