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Abstract in English: Governance in Russian Regions: A Policy ComparisonHelge Blakkisrud reviews Governance in Russian Regions: A Policy Comparison, edited by Sabine Kropp, Aadne Aasland, Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, Jørn Holm-Hansen & Johannes Schumann. The book investigates the emergence and the workings of governance networks in a Russian context.

Aksel V. Carlsen arbetade som forskare vid Institutet för internationella arbetarrörelsen under de två sista decennierna av den sovjetiska eran. I boken IMRD – min arbejdsplads i Moskva berättar han om kollegor, forskningsprojekt och den komplicerade relationen som institutet hade till den politiska regimen i det auktoritära sovjetsystemet. Ett intrikat nätverk mellan "sextitalisterna", som strävade efter socialistiska reformer av systemet, och de toppstyrda rigida politiska maktstrukturerna omgav och definierade IMRD:s verksamhet.
During the two final decades of the Soviet era, Aksel V. Carlsen worked as a researcher at the Institute for the International Labor Movement (IMRD). In IMRD – min arbejdsplads i Moskva (IMRD: my workplace in Moscow) he writes about colleagues, research activities and the institute's complicated interaction with the authoritarian Soviet regime. An intricate network existed between members of the 'sixties generation', who aimed at reforming the Soviet system, and the centralized rigid power structures – a network that enveloped and determined the work of the IMRD.

The article explores how the Russo–Norwegian espionage debacle involving former border inspector Frode Berg was collectively and fragmentarily narrated by Russian online commenters. Through a digital ethnographic case study of user-driven segments on the Russian-language Internet (RuNet) – notably Live Journal and RT comment sections – this article shows how online narratives about the case involved participatory production by heterogeneous, polyphonous constellations of users. Analysing Russian online comments as network narratives, the article examines how Norway (as well as NATO and the West more broadly) has been construed on RuNet, where propaganda is ubiquitous, and where trolls, bots, vatniki and 'everyone else' continuously clash. Commenters' discussions of the Berg case reflect Kremlin-controlled narratives of Norway as an ambiguous actor associated with a high degree of ambivalence, but network narratives also reveal tensions, inconsistencies and contestation of the Russian antagonist discourse on Norway. More broadly, the study highlights how interactive digital narrative can serve to expand our understanding not only of Russia's relationship with Norway, but also of Russian informational activities as such.

Abstract: Post Post-Soviet, style and rebellion: Symbolism and subversive nationalism in Gosha Rubchinskiy's 'new Russia'This article explores the resonance enjoyed by streetwear designer Gosha Rubchinskiy among young Russians, and the extensive network that has emerged under his wings and refers to itself as 'the new Russia'. Analysis of Rubchinskiy's work, with Dick Hebdige's semiotic approach as the epistemological context, supplemented by insights from Simon Reynolds, Michel Foucault and Michel Maffesoli, reveals a continuous deconstruction of the Russian regime's hegemonic narrative of Russianness – so-called 'Putinism'. At the same time, Rubchinskiy constructs a countercultural form of Russian national belonging, one with room to accommodate those who feel alienated by mainstream Russian nationalism. From a social science perspective, a countercultural inclusive nation-building project is in itself a paradox – so how are we to understand Gosha Rubchinskiy's 'new Russia'?

The article analyses representations of history in today's Russia as part of the ideology for expressing central political concepts underlying the Putinist regime. Mainstream interpretations of history build on a populist vision of Russia as a community with a stable, unchangeable core of identity. In this ideological context, history serves as the canvas on which the 'authentic' Russian identity manifests itself. The present research article examines representations of history by focusing on the concepts of 'historical sovereignty', 'unity of history', and the role of elites in history. It finds that regime ideology in today's Russia relies on a sizable infrastructure that involves producing historical knowledge for the purpose of securitizing history and making it an instrumental element in the populist (conservative-communitarian) ideology. Sources for this study come from the network exhibition 'Russia – My History', contextualized through content analysis of the key producers of ideology in Putin's Russia.

Aleksei Navalnyj har blitt en politiker av føderal størrelse, som våget å sette Vladimir Putins posisjon som Russlands øverste leder i tvil. Gjennom en etablering av horisontale antikorrupsjonsnettverk over hele landet, har Navalnyj forsøkt å returnere politikken tilbake til samfunnet. Kalle Kniviläs bok Putins verste fiende følger FSB jakten på Aleksej Navalnyj og er en viktig beretning om forholdet mellom liv og død, mellom redsel og mot, og mellom et fritt og et fanget menneske.
Alexey Navalny has become a politician of federal calibre, the man who dared to question Vladimir Putin's position as the head of Russia. By establishing a horizontal anti-corruption network over the entire country, Navalny sought to return politics back to the people. Kalle Knivilä's Putins verste fiende (Putin's Worst Enemy) traces how the Federal Security Service (FSB) has dogged Navalny's every step. This is an important story of the relationship between life and death, fear and courage, and between a free individual and a trapped person.