Author: Kseniya Kirillova / Eurasia Daily Monitor

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Vladimir Putin regime has been increasingly compared to Hitler’s Nazi Germany. At the end of last year, the Russian television channel Dozhd (now based in the Netherlands and known as “TV Rain”) released a long two-part documentary about the similarities in propaganda, aesthetics and the...

The consequences of Moscow’s war against Ukraine have begun to appear in Russian territory. At the end of February, Russia’s border regions suffered a massive drone attack. On February 27, four drones crashed or were shot down in the Belgorod and Bryansk regions. On the night of February 28, a drone strike caused an explosion...

In the 12th month of Russia’s war against Ukraine, analysts close to the Kremlin are increasingly sounding the alarm that the Russian people should prepare for a long-term conflict. At the same time, in the past, such statements were always accompanied by propaganda narratives about the United States dragging Russia into a protracted war. Now,...

On December 28, in Belarus, a closed tribunal began against Tatyana Kurilina, the former administrator of web-based chats for Belarusian oppositionists. Ms. Kurilina has been charged under 12 articles of Belarus’s criminal code, including allegations of slander and insults against Bela­rusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. If found guilty on all counts, she faces up to 15...

After the humiliating surrender of Kherson, Russian troops have produced no lasting military victories on the battlefield. Even the devastating missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are not producing the desired effects. Meanwhile, contrary to some experts’ expectations, Russian losses have neither led to a tangible increase in anti-war sentiment in Russia, nor to a...

As his war against Ukraine falters, and against the backdrop of Ukrainian forces’ liberation of Kherson, Russian President Vladimir Putin has no other choice than to increase repression at home and abroad. On November 2, on the Telegram channel Nezygar, which is associated with the Russian Presidential Administration (Proekt.media, November 28, 2018), a post appeared...

Despite unprecedented repression by the Russian authorities against anyone who doubts the necessity of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, more citizens are finding the courage to speak out. At the beginning of September, a group of deputies representing St. Petersburg’s Smolninsky district appealed to members of the Russian State Duma to charge Putin with...

Military experts loyal to the Kremlin are increasingly recognizing that Russia does not have the resources to implement President Vladimir Putin’s ambitious geopolitical plans. However, Moscow’s leadership is seemingly no longer capable of listening to rational arguments. In one instance, toward the end of July, several experts from the Military Review website, which is closely...

Pro-Kremlin sociologists record an extremely low level of protest activity in Russia against the background of the Ukrainian war. In particular, the Social Opinion Fund notes that only about 15 to 25 percent of citizens are inclined to express open disagreement in today’s Russia (Media.fom.ru, July 8). Telegram channels loyal to the Kremlin connect this...

Moscow’s attempts to change the policies of other countries in its favor are not limited to military actions in Ukraine. Against the background of the war, the Kremlin is working to win the support of non-Western states in its stand-off with the United States and Europe. And at the same time, it still hopes to...

Following the March 29 round of Russian-Ukrainian peace negotiations held in Istanbul, a cautious optimism crept into the rhetoric of the Russian delegation. However, this was swiftly followed by harshly negative criticism in the Russian media that negotiations are happening at all. That sharp public rebuke, combined with revelations of Russian war crimes in the...

From the beginning of President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, anti-war actions have swept through all the major cities of Russia. Protests break out practically every day and, according to civil rights activists, from February 24-27, 5,935 people have been arrested in over 80 cities (OVDinfo, February 28). Nevertheless, even if the majority of...