Protest in Putin's Russia

Benefiting from his exceptional cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary background, Gabowitsch looks at the Russian polity from below. Highly informed by personal observations, interviews and a systematic database of protest events, the book offers a completely new view of the promise and challenges of protest in the context of the authoritarian temptation that has come back to haunt the entire European continent. Laurent Thevenot, Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris This book sheds new light on the forces and conditions that have shaped the anti-Putin protests in Moscow and elsewhere, examining in unprecedented detail the events, personalities and ideas that have changed Russian and global politics in recent years. There is little doubt that mass protests will occur in Russia again, though in new and unpredictable forms. This book helps us understand their fateful crescendos. Alexander Etkind, European University Institute, Florence, author of Internal Colonization: Russia s Imperial Experience Gabowitsch s seminal study is of interest to the specialist as well as the general reader. It is a meticulously researched volume that throws light on the diverse protests that swept Russia in the wake of the 2011 Duma election. While they failed to prevent Putin's return to the presidency, the protests may well have heralded potentially momentous social change. Josephine von Zitzewitz, University of Cambridge