Russian PoliticsPub Date : 2024-03-25DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00901001
Jeffrey Kahn
{"title":"Russia in the Council of Europe: A Difficult Relationship","authors":"Jeffrey Kahn","doi":"10.30965/24518921-00901001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/24518921-00901001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This short introduction presents some background facts and policy dilemmas concerning the admission, membership, and expulsion of the Russian Federation from the Council of Europe, with a special emphasis on the European Convention on Human Rights. It then introduces the six articles that compose this special issue of Russian Politics. Finally, it summarizes the process by which these articles came to be gathered together – a two-day workshop funded by PluriCourts and organized by Geir Flikke and Jeffrey Kahn.","PeriodicalId":37176,"journal":{"name":"Russian Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140384647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Russian PoliticsPub Date : 2024-03-25DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00901007
Agnieszka Kubal, Marcin Mrowicki
{"title":"Pushback or Backlash against the European Court of Human Rights?","authors":"Agnieszka Kubal, Marcin Mrowicki","doi":"10.30965/24518921-00901007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/24518921-00901007","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article uses the theoretical model of ‘pushback-backlash’ developed by Madsen, Cebulak and Wiebusch (2018) for a comparative analysis of the differing patterns of reaction to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) by two Eastern European countries – Russia, and Poland. We argue that Russian Constitutional Court’s (RCC) rejection of ECtHR authority, while extraordinary and legislated by the Duma, was in fact self-limiting, as observed in politically motivated cases. The decisions of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (PCT), by contrast, go further than pushback, as rights enshrined in the Convention may soon become illusory to Polish citizens. Having chosen a country that was expelled from the Convention (Russia), and one that is still a member (Poland), we suggest opening the conceptual binary between ‘pushback’ and ‘backlash’ towards a dynamic continuum.","PeriodicalId":37176,"journal":{"name":"Russian Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140382408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Russian PoliticsPub Date : 2024-03-25DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00901004
Marianna Muravyeva, Yuliya Brin
{"title":"Conservative Jurisprudence and Russia’s Response to ECtHR Judgements on Cases of Domestic Violence","authors":"Marianna Muravyeva, Yuliya Brin","doi":"10.30965/24518921-00901004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/24518921-00901004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines Russia’s record in complying with the European Convention of Human Rights, the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the CoE’s policies in relation to the human rights of women – the protection of women from domestic violence in particular. It seeks to explain why Russia has systematically refused to introduce specialized legislation on protection from domestic violence. It argues that human rights of women, especially cases of domestic violence, became the main point of contention between Russia and the CoE for two main reasons: a fundamentally different approach to the human rights of women and equality, inherited from Soviet-era legislation; and a special type of legal reasoning of international legal obligations – conservative jurisprudence – which undermined the understanding of the legal value of protection of human rights of women and led to invoking various arguments of cultural sovereignty. Non-compliance and quiet avoidance of any gender-sensitive legislation, not least on domestic violence, indicate that Russia has never really committed to the rule of law.","PeriodicalId":37176,"journal":{"name":"Russian Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140383338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Russian PoliticsPub Date : 2024-03-25DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00901002
G. Flikke, Daniella Slabinski
{"title":"Authoritarian Sovereignization: Russia’s Way out of the Council of Europe","authors":"G. Flikke, Daniella Slabinski","doi":"10.30965/24518921-00901002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/24518921-00901002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Russia’s war against Ukraine and departure from the Council of Europe (CoE) in 2022 raises numerous questions about the effect of norm-diffusion in wider Europe. While inclusion in the CoE has provided litigation opportunities for Russian citizens, the process of “sovereignization” pursued by the regime has brought Russia into a downward spinning spiral of authoritarian illiberalism. This study discusses expectations derived from the hybrid regime model (containment of the domestic opposition as a driver towards full-blown authoritarianism) and from spiral theories of human rights compliance; it argues that the Putin regime has sought to seal Russia off from normative pressures from international organizations in pursuit of sovereign norms and values, and construed a separate legal space aimed at maintaining authoritarian rule indefinitely.","PeriodicalId":37176,"journal":{"name":"Russian Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140382807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Russian PoliticsPub Date : 2024-03-25DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00901005
Ariella Katz Miller
{"title":"Cost of Expulsion, Dissent and Human Rights in Russia","authors":"Ariella Katz Miller","doi":"10.30965/24518921-00901005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/24518921-00901005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000With Russia outside the Council of Europe, the possibilities for successful litigation against the state by Russian citizens have become limited. In more ways than one, Russians made the Strasbourg court their own. Russia was among the states with the most applications against it. At the same time, victims of Russia’s abuses, dissenters, and human rights defenders were among the ECtHR’s main beneficiaries. Despite Russia’s mixed record of compliance, the Court provided a singular avenue for accountability, and served as a catalyst for domestic mobilization. Expulsion appears to have accelerated authoritarian decline. Although it is hard to know how much stronger respect for human rights would have been had Russia remained, in the absence of European Court, human rights in Russia face massive challenges. The cost of expulsion raises questions about how human rights institutions should balance institutional legitimacy and condemnation of states with responsibility to the people living within them.","PeriodicalId":37176,"journal":{"name":"Russian Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140384044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Russian PoliticsPub Date : 2024-03-25DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00901006
K. Koroteev
{"title":"Non-execution of Strasbourg Judgments against Russia: the Case for a Trust Fund","authors":"K. Koroteev","doi":"10.30965/24518921-00901006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/24518921-00901006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000After being expelled from the Council of Europe, Russia passed a law on not complying with any judgment of the European Court of Human Rights that entered into force after 15 March 2022. In these circumstances, new approaches are required to safeguard the authority of the Court. This study considers the possible ways out of the deadlock. Firstly, it critically examines the Committee of Minister’ strategy on implementing Russian judgments, which is limited to registering outstanding obligations of the Russian Government under the Court’s judgments. Secondly, the frozen property in Europe is yet to be confiscated, nor it is clear whether it will be. This study proposes that, under the aegis and within a legal framework of an existing international organization, a trust fund be established which may receive voluntary contributions from States and individuals. It will be better placed to do so than multiple indigent individuals scattered across the globe. If and when Russia applies to return to the Council of Europe it may be required to reimburse, with all accrued interest, the amounts spent by such a trust fund.","PeriodicalId":37176,"journal":{"name":"Russian Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140381443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Russian PoliticsPub Date : 2024-03-25DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00901003
Dmitry Kurnosov
{"title":"Resisting Strasbourg to Reassure Moscow: the Recent Story of the Russian Constitutional Court","authors":"Dmitry Kurnosov","doi":"10.30965/24518921-00901003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/24518921-00901003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Russia’s last decade within the European Convention on Human Rights (up to its exit in 2022) was seen by many authors as an emblematic case of state-led resistance to the authority of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg that interprets the Convention. However, they mostly view it from a Strasbourg perspective. This article fills a gap in the literature by adding a perspective of a Russian institution – the country’s Constitutional Court. It argues that it had to walk a fine line by addressing two distinct constituencies – the other state institutions and human rights lawyers. By analysing the case citation patterns, the article claims that the Constitutional Court in practice balanced its public criticism of Strasbourg colleagues by accepting the authority of their judgments.","PeriodicalId":37176,"journal":{"name":"Russian Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140381531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Russian PoliticsPub Date : 2023-10-18DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00803011
Daniil Romanov, Ilya Fominykh, Ivan Ankudinov
{"title":"Substituting the Opposition under Electoral Authoritarianism: The Case of the Russian Regional Parliamentary Elections in 2021","authors":"Daniil Romanov, Ilya Fominykh, Ivan Ankudinov","doi":"10.30965/24518921-00803011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/24518921-00803011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Political scientists have long known that modern electoral autocracies can use quasi-democratic institutions to neutralize the danger posed by the opposition. Participation in elections by completely controlled spoiler parties proved to be an effective tool for maintaining authoritarian stability. However, researchers know few cases of how aging authoritarian regimes create systemic semi-independent opposition in order to increase turnout and split the votes of the systemic opposition. Based on a database of candidates from single-member districts ( SMD ) in the 2021 regional parliamentary elections in Russia with more than 2,200 unique observations, we show how the participation of candidates from the newly created New People, Green Alternative, and the Russian Party of Freedom and Justice affected the electoral results of United Russia and two parties of the ‘old’ systemic opposition.","PeriodicalId":37176,"journal":{"name":"Russian Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135942884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Russian PoliticsPub Date : 2023-10-18DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00803008
Allison D. Evans
{"title":"Exploring Local Political Opportunity Structures: Protest and Social Control in Russia’s Provinces","authors":"Allison D. Evans","doi":"10.30965/24518921-00803008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/24518921-00803008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Why does the scale and intensity of protest vary so widely across Russian cities? This article answers this question by disaggregating political opportunity structures to consider the interaction between formal and informal political factors through a paired comparison of two similar Russian cities during the turbulent 1990s. Drawing on archival documents, interviews, and an analysis of local media, I argue that the observed variation depends on elite strategies for social control and local governmental institutions. Specifically, when a city’s institutions and political elite strategy match, either with undemocratic institutions and a closed political elite strategy, or with democratic institutions and an open political elite strategy, protests are likely to be small and insignificant. In contrast, when the institutional architecture and political elite strategies mismatch, protests are more likely to be large and intense because there is an opening for protest, but not institutionalized paths for participation.","PeriodicalId":37176,"journal":{"name":"Russian Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135942879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Russian PoliticsPub Date : 2023-10-18DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00803010
Ekaterina Kosevich
{"title":"Russia-Venezuela Relations (and US Interests): A Fully-Fledged and Long-Term Strategic Partnership?","authors":"Ekaterina Kosevich","doi":"10.30965/24518921-00803010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/24518921-00803010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The strengthening of cooperation between Russia and Venezuela has become one of the characteristics of the system of international relations at the beginning of the 21st century. The previously “unfamiliar” states showed a rapid rapprochement in less than two decades, rewriting the established paradigm that only Cuba could be considered as the Kremlin’s strategic partner in Latin America. Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, unexpectedly led to rapid positive changes in US-Venezuelan relations, once again reminding the world that these countries have historically been important trade and economic partners, which will not change quickly. This raised the Kremlin’s concerns about the impending “loss” of Venezuela. The article provides an analysis of the current state of Russia-Venezuela relations, highlighting the factors that were behind every achievement of Russia in Venezuela, with the coming to power of a left-wing government that defined itself as socialist, anti-capitalist, anti-neoliberal and anti-hegemonic. Highlighting the main areas of the ongoing interaction between Caracas and Washington, the author casts doubt on the prevailing opinion in the literature that Russia has been able to form a full-fledged and long-term strategic partnership with Venezuela.","PeriodicalId":37176,"journal":{"name":"Russian Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135942878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}