| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The Kremlin's decision to call a snap election for Moscow mayor in September 2013 may be remembered as a turning point both for Vladimir Putin's regime and for the Russian opposition. For years, the strength of the Putin government has depended not only on its heavy hand but on the lack of an alternative. This vacuum was created and maintained, of course, by the heavy hand itself-shutting down unwanted television channels, disenfranchising (and sometimes jailing) political opponents, and fixing elections. And, for a time, it worked. The shrewdest of Kremlin apologists, both in Russia and abroad, have long ceased to praise the regime, occasionally even admitting its corrupt and repressive nature, but invariably asking, "If not Putin, then who?"
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