Political Rivalry and Conflict in Putin’s Russia

The year 2015 throughout Russia was much less about what it seemed than what it revealed. On the surface, after the September 2015 combined regional and local elections, Russia appeared to be tranquil, politically disengaged, and supportive of President Vladimir Putin. The underlying reality was quite different. The election exposed a country divided by rivalry and a conflict of interests within the Russian political establishment set off by Putin’s own policies over the preceding two years. Since the election, Putin and the Kremlin have been confronting the challenge of balancing and containing the competing interests of institutions, levels of government, and establishment stakeholders who are less easily reconciled or controlled.     

History as a propaganda tool in Putin’s Russia

This paper analyzes the propaganda campaign orchestrated by the Russian authorities with the aim of promoting a version of the country’s history for political purposes. This version puts the accent on the exceptionality of Russian historical development, and is geared to endowing the figure of Vladimir Putin – seen as the person who has succeeded in carrying out a number of national projects that have been frequently abandoned throughout Russian history. The analysis presented here centres on two channels used in the campaign: school textbooks and the film industry.     

Shortcut to Legitimacy: Popularity in Putin’s Russia

Survey evidence suggests that Vladimir Putin’s legitimacy rests on three pillars: domestic order; economic prosperity; and the demonstration of great power status internationally. This is problematic inasmuch as it is based on a high degree of personal popularity which inhibits and contravenes the legal–rational legitimacy of state institutions. This requires continued delivery in all three areas in order to maintain the legitimacy of the regime. This framework allows us better to interpret the 2014 Ukraine crisis as an attempt to shore up support in one ‘pillar’ as performance-based legitimacy recedes.     

Russia’s Power Politics in Ukraine and Syria: Status-seeking between Identity,Opportunity and Costs

Abstract

This article looks at Russia’s exercise of power politics in Ukraine and Syria as a way of improving its international status. Russia’s recent willingness to use power and coercion is theoretically counterintuitive as it appears to be in dissonance with the prevalent characterisation of the country as a status-overachieving inconsistent power. We argue that this behaviour is not the result of a consistent weighing of status against capabilities, but rather reflective of both internal and external dynamics. We analyse issues of identity, opportunity and costs as factors that influence Russian foreign action, showing that power politics will not solve Russia’s status-inconsistency problem in the long run.     

Russia’s Climate Policy: International Bargaining and Domestic Modernisation

This article accounts for the gap between Russia’s weak initial implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and its more active engagement in climate policy during the Medvedev presidency. We examine the intersection of climate policy and broader efforts to modernise Russia’s economy, drawing attention to synergies between domestic and international politics. We argue that international factors alone do not explain the change in climate policy as they have remained relatively constant. Instead, greater attention toward climate policy results from efforts to introduce new technologies and increase energy efficiency, spurred by the recent financial crisis and a shift in domestic policy priorities associated with the Medvedev presidency.     

New Development in Global Politics and Rethinking on China’s Multilateral Diplomacy

The new developments in global politics exert three systemic impacts on international relations. Global issues, vital to the survival of mankind, rise to the top agenda of national governments. The epicenter of global power is shifting from U.S. and Europe to the rest of the regions. The global political excitement and zeal is rolling on. All exact more on the competence of global governance. The current international multilateral mechanisms are in competence deficit, worsening either in terms of adequacy, validity or legitimacy. The call for the reform of it is ever soaring. China by the way is at once engaging in the multilateral diplomacy transforming the international system and facing the growing pressure of assuming leadership and international responsibility. China needs to continuously adapt to the changed national identity in the multilateral diplomacy, to reconcile the multilateral mechanisms that deal with regions and domains in China’s strategic planning and laying-out, to organically associate the short-term and long-term goals and to upgrade the concept of harmonious world in the practice of multilateral diplomacy.