Steve Swerdlow, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The Central Asian nation has long figured among the ‘worst of the worst’ in regards to political and human rights. A new report shines light on cases of activists being seized and then going missing.
Russia has tied its currency to gold to evade sanctions. Shifting the ruble away from a pegged value and into the gold standard itself is aimed at making it a credible gold substitute at a fixed rate.
Western governments must honestly assess the mistaken assumptions that have undermined effective policies in the past and articulate what a better future would look like for the Russian people.
Russian disinformation expert Ilya Yablokov tells The Conversation Weekly podcast about the president’s shifting relationship with conspiracy theories.
A centralised system of government has allowed Putin to project power, but the country’s health care, schools, infrastructure and general quality of life have sharply deteriorated.
While Putin is all but guaranteed to win, war fatigue, electoral engineering and extreme risk-aversion suggest that the Kremlin is anxious to get these elections over and done with.