Abstract: Russia as Civilization: Ideological Discourses in Politics, Media, and AcademiaPål Kolstø (University of Oslo, Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages) reviews Russia as Civilization: Ideological Discourses in Politics, Media, and Academia, edited by Kåre Johan Mjør and Sanna Turoma (Routledge, 2020).
Abstract: Armenia and Europe: Foreign Aid and Environmental Politics in the Post-Soviet Caucasus Lene Wetteland (Norwegian Helsinki Committee) reviews Armenia and Europe: Foreign Aid and Environmental Politics in the Post-Soviet Caucasus by Dr. Pål Wilter Skedsmo. The book is a revised version of his 2017 PhD thesis in Social Anthropology. Skedsmo uses his personal experience from a project on environmental rights in Armenia in the early 2010s and Armenian civil society's application of the Aarhus Convention as case studies to discuss the issue of Europeanization of Armenia in this context.
The Cultural Is Political. Intersections of Russian Art and State Politics, edited by Irina Anisimova and Ingunn Lunde, is an edited volume dealing with various political ideologies and the ambiguous nature of cultural practices in contemporary Russia. The volume is a good introduction to a range of topics in the field of Russian studies.
The Cultural Is Political. Intersections of Russian Art and State Politics redigeret av Irina Anisimova og Ingunn Lunde er en artikelsamling, der fokuserer på diverse politiske ideologier og de tvetydige kulturelle former og praksisser i nutidens Rusland. Artikelsamlingen er en god introduktion til russiskstudieområdet.
Denne bokomtalen dreier seg om Hilma Salonens studie av overgangen til fornybar energi i Russlands arktiske strøk: Russian Renewable Energy Politics in the Arctic: National Priorities and Local Realities. Hun viser at det er mulig å realisere fornybar-prosjekter i fossilavhengige land som Russland. Selv om aktørene som fremmer slike prosjekter ikke synes å være fremtredende i Russland, viser studien at de har et visst handlingsrom som de lykkes med å utnytte.
In Russian Renewable Energy Politics in the Arctic: National Priorities and Local Realities, Hilma Salonen examines the renewable energy transition in the Russian Arctic. She documents how, even in a heavily fossil-fuel dominated country like Russia, renewable energy players can achieve their goals. Hidden at first glance, these actors exhibit features of agency and can act successfully to develop renewable energy projects.
Fabian Heffermehl, researcher at the University of Oslo, reviews The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia: Language, Fiction and Fantasy in Modern Russia edited by Mikhail Suslov and Per Arne Bodin.
Abstract: Security Policy and Memory Politics: Establishing the Soviet Liberation Monument in Kirkenes, 1945–1952A few kilometers from the border with Russia, in the town of Kirkenes in the easternmost corner of Northern Norway, there stands a bronze statue of a Soviet soldier looking out over the borderland. The Soviet Liberation Monument, as the statue is called, was unveiled in 1952 by the Norwegian authorities, in gratitude for the Soviet liberation of the East Finnmark area in 1944. The statue has served as a meeting place for regular commemorative ceremonies involving the Norwegian and Soviet authorities, throughout the Cold War and up until the present. This article explores the interplay between security policy and memory politics at the onset of the Cold War by examining the seven-year long process of establishing this monument. As the Iron Curtain descended over Europe, the monument and the memories attached to it became important tools with which Norway developed a critical dialogue with its great-power neighbor. The article shows how the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs learned how to use the collective memories of the Soviet liberation to ensure Norway's security-policy goal of low tension in its relations with the USSR.
Abstract: Russia's Defence Policy and Military Presence in the Caucasus and Central AsiaThese two reports, Security in the Caucasus. Russian policy and military posture and Security in the Caucasus. Russian policy and military posture, analyse and discuss Russia's security policy and military posture after 2014 in two regions often described as part of Russia's 'near abroad', the Caucasus and Central Asia. The reports find that although both regions are considered as within Russia's 'sphere of influence', the Russian military structure and policy varies significantly. While geared towards crisis management of potential conflicts in Central Asia, the frozen conflicts in the South Caucasus have made Russia set up for regional war.
Abstract: Trauma and Collective Memories in Georgia's Foreign PolicyGeorgia's foreign policy since the mid-1990s would appear to be a regional anomaly. While Georgia's neighbors have either accommodated to Russia's geopolitical interests or sought to navigate between Russia and the West, Georgian governments have pursued a comparatively stable pro-Western foreign policy orientation. Thus, structural arguments like geographic proximity, or Russia's assertive foreign policy, cannot account for the variation in foreign-policy orientation among post-Soviet states. Moreover, although alternative explanations, like Georgia's European identity and commitment to democracy, or explanations related to qualities of the Mikheil Saakashvili government, are not without merits, they cannot fully account for the continuity in Georgia's pro-Western foreign policy over time. This article argues that the collective memory of the traumatic years 1989–1994 is a key factor for understanding Georgia's foreign policy continuity. The collective memory and trauma related to loss of territory, together with a weak state and Russia's negative involvement, have shaped the strategic thinking of Georgia's foreign policy elites. This trauma explains Georgia's shift to a pro-Western foreign policy in the mid-1990s and the continuity of this policy up until today. This argument is supported by the author's interviews with key Georgian decision-makers responsible for foreign policy decisions.
The Politics of Poverty in Contemporary Russia, by Ann-Mari Sätre, is reviewed by Kirsti Stuvøy, Associate Professor, Faculty of Landscape and Society, International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).
In 2019, the Swedish government officially switched terminology from using the traditional endogenous term Vitryssland to the exogenous Belarus. Vitryssland (lit: White Russia) had been in use in the Swedish language since the 17th century, and the decision was neither easy nor swift. There was no consensus about the utility of the change, and significant opposition from linguists and editors against abandoning a term which had emerged and become established over centuries of contact. The debate preceding the switch was often shrill, led by activists and steeped in identity politics. In fact, controversies regarding what to call the country were nothing new, highlighting diverging visions of its geopolitical and cultural position between East and West. Discussions mirrored the far more emotional and polarized discussions among Belarusian nationalists in the 20th century, which at times became violent. Kryvia, Byelorussia, Greatlitva were but some of contenders. This article is an attempt to place discussions about the Swedish terminology in the larger context of history, memory, geopolitics and identity politics.
The article analyses the results of a nationally representative survey on local democracy conducted in Ukraine in the autumn of 2017, offering insights into attitudes towards local authorities and ongoing decentralization reforms, as well as participation in local politics. The survey shows that people have very low trust in the authorities, but more trust in them than in national institutions. Respondents feel that they have little influence on local politics and that local authorities do not take their opinion into account. On the other hand, the majority report being active in various forms of local political activity. Further, there is considerable support of decentralization reforms; people have already noted certain local improvements since the decentralization reform was launched in 2015. Differences among the several geographical regions of Ukraine are small. Survey findings are explained through three analytical frameworks that emphasize the historical heritage, important economic and political conditions, and structural adjustment to European institutions.
Abstract in English: Review of Vory: den ryska supermaffianMi Lennhag reviews Vory: den ryska supermaffian (The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia) by Mark Galeotti (translated by Manne Svensson). The book examines organized crime in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia. Historical, political and cultural contexts help explaining the Russian mafia and the phenomenon vory. Galeotti pictures a Russian society where politics and organized crime remain closely linked.
The amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation adoped after a 2020 referendum included a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. This is a recent manifestation of the turn to 'traditional values' in Russian politics and society, the best-known expression of which is the 2013 ban on 'propaganda for non-traditional sexual orientation'. This development cannot be understood as solely reflecting 'traditional' attitudes of the Russian population, nor as a backlash against LGBTQ activism. The turn to 'traditional values' must be considered in the context of a global pattern of increased pro-family mobilization, which opposes LGBTQ rights, feminism and the alleged undermining of gender as biologically determined and strictly binary – described by researchers as 'anti-gender mobilization'. Traditionalist politics in Russia should be analysed in a transnational and international perspective, but conservative mobilization is not a monolithic phenomenon. Using the concept of 'discourse coalition' developed by Maarten Hajer, I show how the identification of shared storylines enables a range of actors to act in similar ways, sometimes coordinating their actions, despite ideological, religious or strategic disagreements, on the domestic as well as the global arena.
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.
Abstract: 'The Politics of Uncertainty' in Practice: The 2020 Presidential Election that Changed BelarusUp until 2020 Aleksandr Lukashenka's authoritarian regime had ruled Belarus for 26 years without major challenges. Thus, the popular mobilization that took shape in connection with the August 2020 presidential election came as a surprise. It was not the first time that elections in Belarus were not fair – but it was the first time that large sectors of the population reacted openly. Six months later, Belarusians all over the country were still contesting the falsified results. What contributed to this mobilization and politicization of a previously largely apolitical society? Why does that development represent such a serious threat to the authoritarian system? This study sees the Belarusian presidential election and its aftermath as illustrating the 'politics of uncertainty' of electoral authoritarian regimes. Because of the intrinsic insecurity of authoritarian systems, all regular elections in that context entail risks, which in theory might lead to change. In Belarus, the emergence of latent threats to the regime's legitimacy in the form of social cleavages and an economic crisis, combined with the fundamental dynamics of the 'election game', amplified this instability. The election served as the starting point for a process of transformation that became the most serious threat ever faced by the Lukashenka regime.
