The Power Vertical Podcast at CEPA
Protests are swelling in Russia and Belarus. Dissatisfaction towards the regimes is at an all-time high. And the movement on the streets in both countries shows no sign of slowing down. So what comes next?
Nearly six decades ago, a workers uprising in Novocherkassk was brutally suppressed by the Soviet authorities and effectively airbrushed from history.
Three decades ago, miners strikes broke out in the Kuzbass region and spread across Siberia and beyond, becoming a catalyst for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
One decade ago, the Kremlin faced its first major regional protests when thousands took to the streets in Kaliningrad to demand the resignation of an unpopular governor — a storm the regime easily weathered with a combination of carrots and sticks.
Are we about to see a replay of the harsh repression of 1962, the contagion of 1989, or the passive aggressive manipulation of 2010? Is Khabarovsk a Novocherkassk redux? A Kuzbass relay? Or a Kaliningrad rerun? Or is it something else entirely?
Joining Brian Whitmore on the latest Power Vertical Podcast are Vladimir Kara-Murza, the vice-president of the Free Russia Foundation, chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation, and a columnist for The Washington Post, and Maria Snegovaya, a fellow with CEPA’s Russia Program and a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University.
Photo: “Meeting with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko by the Kremlin under CC BY 4.0.
The Power Vertical is a CEPA podcast covering the Kremlin for Kremlin watchers. All opinions are those of the guests and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.
