Last weekend, Russians angry over high-level corruption and the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny protested in 120 cities across the country. How significant is the threat of these protests to President Putin’s leadership? And how will his government respond to the unexpected and well-organized display of popular anger?
Please join us for a virtual discussion on what the Navalny arrest and protests may mean for the evolution of Russian domestic politics. The discussion will feature Carnegie Moscow Center (CMC) senior fellows Alexander Baunov and Andrei Kolesnikov. Baunov has written in the wake of the demonstrations about the meaning of the new protest movement and how it differs from past political activism. Kolesnikov’s recent work has used public opinion surveys and focus groups to evaluate shifts in the public mood. They will be joined by Elizaveta Fokht, a Moscow-based correspondent for BBC Russian Service who covered the protests in central Moscow.
FEATURING
Alexander Baunov
Baunov is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center and editor in chief of Carnegie.ru.
Elizaveta Fokht
Elizaveta Fokht is a journalist for the BBC Russian Service.
Andrei Kolesnikov
Kolesnikov is a senior fellow and the chair of the Russian Domestic Politics and Political Institutions Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Andrew S. Weiss
Weiss is the James Family Chair and vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment, where he oversees research in Washington and Moscow on Russia and Eurasia.