Battle for Public Space
The United People’s Front has grown into a major political force two years after it seemingly lost its momentum following the December 2011 elections. The organization now enjoys both public interest and government support, which allows it to pressure local government officials and compete with the opposition for the anticorruption and government efficiency agenda. It has managed to force the governor of a large federal entity to resign, demonstrating its increasing political influence.
An independent TV network, Dozhd (“Rain”) is being forced off the air as the ruling elite continues to secure domination over all national media. Alleged unethical behavior led to an obvious overreaction on behalf of cable operators that was backed by the ruling elite. That leads to greater self-censorship of Russian media entities (both public and privately-owned) that do not belong to international stakeholders.
The Moscow parliament has reformed its election system ahead of the September 2014 ballot. The new first-past-the-post system is beneficial for the Moscow Mayor but does not correspond to the Presidential Administration’s goals, which indicates a growing disagreement between the two.
Russians have been increasingly excited about the Sochi Olympics, as over the half of them will be watching at least one winter sporting event during the game. Russians are, however, very much more likely to watch the sports in which Russia has a chance to win.
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