Russian repression grows despite regime stability

Significance 'Foreign agent', 'undesirable organisation' and 'extremist' designations have become the standard mechanisms for squeezing investigative journalists, independent media and other government critics. They are also an attack on Western values as they stigmatise contact with the world outside Russia as subservience to malign external influence. Impacts Repressive laws are used to justify Moscow's aversion to the West and liberal values. Legislation has multiplier effects since 'untainted' media can break the rules by quoting a designated organisation. The ongoing crackdown on domestic critics will be damaging for Russia's economic and investment attractiveness.

Media Control and Citizen-Critical Publics in Russia: Are Some “Pigs” More Equal Than Others?

Amid the intensification of state control over the digital domain in Russia, what types of online activism are tolerated or even endorsed by the government and why? While entities such as the Anti-Corruption Foundation exposing the state are silenced through various tactics such as content blocking and removal, labelling the foundation a “foreign agent,” and deeming it “extremist,” other formations of citizens using digital media to expose “offences” performed by fellow citizens are operating freely. This article focuses on a vigilante group targeting “unscrupulous” merchants (often ethnic minorities and labour migrants) for the alleged sale of expired produce—the Hrushi Protiv. Supported by the government, Hrushi Protiv participants survey grocery chain stores and open-air markets for expired produce, a practice that often escalates into violence, while the process is filmed and edited to be uploaded to YouTube. These videos constitute unique media products that entertain the audience, ensuring the longevity of punitive measures via public exposure and shaming. Relying on Litvinenko and Toepfl’s (2019) application of Toepfl’s (2020) “leadership-critical,” “policy-critical,” and “uncritical” publics theory in the context of Russia, this article proposes a new category to describe state-approved digital vigilantes—citizen-critical publics. A collaboration with such publics allows the state to demonstrate a façade of civil society activism amid its silencing; while state-approved participants gain financial rewards and fame. Through Foucauldian discourse analysis, the article reveals that vulnerable groups such as labour migrants and ethnic minorities could fall victim to the side effects of this collaboration.

On the Administrative Liability for the Violation of the Procedure for Operations of Foreign Mass Media Acting as a Foreign Agent

The article studies the problems of the administrative liability for the violation of the procedure for operations of foreign mass media and a Russian legal entity incorporated by such mass media, both acting as a foreign agent. The author analyzes legal requirements for the organization and carrying out of such activities, the law enforcement practice, brings forward proposals for the amendment of the administrative legal provision in terms of toughening of the liability for a repeated and severe violation of the procedure for functioning of foreign mass media and a Russian legal entity incorporated by such mass media, both acting as a foreign agent.

Epilogue

Each of the three Asian American suspects were considered and then dismissed as the Trojan Horse within the OSS. The suspicion that the double agent was someone with a short family history in the United States was proven incorrect. Instead, the foreign agent inside the OSS was one whose family heritage traced back to the American Revolutionary War and whose ancestor signed the Declaration of Independence. Yet blame for the intelligence leakage to a foreign power ultimately rests on the FBI, the State Department, and the director of the OSS itself for their inadequacies in securing classified documents and ineptitude at counterintelligence.

Disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi

This paper deals with a case study that provides unique and original insight into social media credibility attacks against the Saudi journalist and activist, Jamal Khashoggi. To get the data, I searched all the state-run tweets sent by Arab trolls (78,274,588 in total), and I used Cedar, Canada’s supercomputer, to extract all the videos and images associated with references to Khashoggi. In addition, I searched Twitter’s full data archive to cross-examine some of the hashtag campaigns that were launched the day Khashoggi disappeared and afterwards. Finally, I used CrowdTangle to understand whether some of these hashtags were also used on Facebook and Instagram. I present here evidence that just a few hours after Khashoggi’s disappearance in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Saudi trolls started a coordinated disinformation campaign against him to frame him as a terrorist, foreign agent for Qatar and Turkey, liar.... etc. The trolls also emphasized that the whole story of his disappearance and killing is a fabrication or a staged play orchestrated by Turkey and Qatar. The campaign also targeted his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, alleging she was a spy, while later they cast doubt about her claims. Some of these campaigns were launched a few months after Khashoggi’s death. Theoretically, I argue that state-run disinformation campaigns need to incorporate the dimension of intended effect. In this case study, the goal is to tarnish the reputation and credibility of Khashoggi, even after he died, in an attempt to discredit his claims and political cause, influence different audiences especially the Saudi public, and potentially reduce sympathy towards him.

Women’s organizations as a segment of civil society of modern Russia

The article analyses women’s organizations of modern Russia as a component of civil society. The study is based on the gender approach and materials analyzed include statistical data, results of opinion polls, websites of women’s organizations, interviews and other documents. The women’s movement is considered as one of the social practices in the context of the theory of practices proposed by Pierre Bourdie, Robert Connell and others. The author notes that the peak of women’s activity in Russia was in the 1990s, when women were uniting to solve social problems, such as women’s unemployment, human trafficking, etc. During that time, the women’s movement in Russia was developing with the support of international women’s organizations and foreign charity funds, but after the adoption of the so-called law on “foreign agents” many funds suspended or limited their activities in Russia. As a result, nowadays, many Russian NGOs including women’s organizations are facing financial problems. NGOs recognized as a “foreign agent” experience the most difficulties while organizations with the status of socially oriented NGOs can receive government’s support and funding. Using the method of content analysis, the author revealed that names of Russian women’s organizations often include such words as “family”, “childhood”, and “motherhood”, whereas the words “woman”/“women” and ‘women’s’ are rarely used. This is due to the fact that in Russian society there are still widespread views that the range of women’s interests should be limited to the private sphere. At the same time, the gender theory and feminism are often presented as attempts to undermine national traditions. As a result, a woman is considered as an object of social policy rather than a subject of social processes. The majority of Russian women’s organizations focus on charity work, but specific women’s interests and problems are often ignored or undervalued. However, domestic violence, labour market discrimination, and other gender problems can be solved only through the close interaction of the “third sector”, business, and government.