The war in Ukraine is barreling toward its fifth year, and the Kremlin is clamping down even harder on dissent. This month alone, Vladimir Putin signed a new package of laws that amount to “civic death” for exiled critics; Russia’s Supreme Court upheld the banning of the country’s only antiwar party, Yabloko, from next month’s elections; and the party’s deputy chair was sentenced to more than eleven years in prison. Moscow couldn’t be clearer: As victory grows more elusive and the war more punishing, criticism will not be tolerated.
To learn more about what’s driving Putin’s war and the Kremlin’s escalating assault on dissent, read the following Journal of Democracy essays, free for a limited time.
| How Putin Erases Dissidents and Critics Vladimir Putin has signed a new “civic death” law targeting the Kremlin’s critics everywhere. The goal is to intimidate Russian citizens from speaking out against Putin’s crimes. By Liudmila Listrovaya |
| The Putin Myth Vladimir Putin’s reputation as a skillful leader was buoyed by years of economic good fortune. But when his regime faltered, his rule quickly descended into the fearful, repressive, and paranoid state we see today. By Kathryn Stoner |
| Armies and Autocrats: Why Putin’s Military Failed When Vladimir Putin launched a massive invasion of Ukraine, he expected an easy victory. Instead, the world has witnessed an object lesson in how a corrupt Russian regime crippled its own military power. By Zoltan Barany |
| The War in Ukraine: Putin’s Inevitable InvasionWhy did Russia invade Ukraine? And why are Russian forces fighting so poorly? The internal logic of its personalist dictatorship is to blame.By Ivan Gomza |
| What Putin Fears Most Forget his excuses. Russia’s autocrat doesn’t worry about NATO. What terrifies him is the prospect of a flourishing Ukrainian democracy. By Robert Person and Michael McFaul |
| Why Russia’s Democracy Never Began People obsess over where Russia’s democracy went wrong. The truth is it did not fail: Russia’s democratic transition never got off the starting blocks. By Maria Snegovaya |
| Ukraine and Russia: War and Political Regimes Will Russia’s war tip the Kremlin even further toward tyranny while fortifying Ukraine’s democracy? That will depend on Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky as much as on the course of the war itself. By Timothy J. Colton |
| Putin’s Other Failed War The Russian leader declared war on his country’s independent journalists. But Russian media outsmarted him by taking their operations overseas. They are now reaching more people than ever before. By Roman Badanin |
| The Journal of Democracy is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October. Subscribe now for full access to our archives. |
