Democracy, protest and public sphere in Russia after the 2011–2012 anti-government protests: digital media at stake

The 2011–2012 Russian protest mobilisations were largely enabled by the rise of social networks. Social and technological advancements paired to pave the way for the ‘biggest protests since the fall of USSR’. Ubiquitous and uncensored social media facilitated the networking and mobilisation for this protest activity: Liberal masses were able to share and discuss their grievances, unite and coordinate online for the offline protest. The digitally savvy protest public developed to confront the government, which appeared to be astonished by the scale of protest. Those mobilisations marked an important gap between the government’s conception of the society and the real state of resistance. This article studies three main hypotheses regarding the potential of the protest movement in Russia. The hypotheses were drawn from recent sociological, political and media studies on Russian resistance. Current research aims to contribute to the debate from the digital media perspective. It therefore evaluates three main assumptions: Digital media have the potential to empower, dependent upon the relevant political, social and economic factors; digital media isolates protest publics and therefore may be more useful for the government than the resistance; and recent censorship of digital media communication signals a tightening of both formal and informal restrictions against opposition and protest politics. This article uses theoretical and factual evidence on the limitations of democracy and the public sphere and conceptualises the government’s management of resistance in Russia during and after the 2011–2012 protests. It studies how the hybrid political regime in Russia balances restrictions on freedom of speech with strengthened state propaganda and how it mediates media oppression and invites self-censorship. Finally, it examines how the state communication watchdog has recently focused its attention at the digital realm. This move confirms the importance of the online protest communication for the Russian political environment. Yet the state’s acknowledgement of digital political resistance may lead to further oppression and curbing of this emerging component of Russian politics

Sites of subversion: online political satire in two post-Soviet states

This article questions the Internet’s ability to foster a civil society and to be a counter hegemonic force using the case of grassroots political satire. It focuses on two post-Soviet states – an authoritarian dictatorship of Belarus and an aspiring democracy of Ukraine – where the subversive potential of the online satire plays out in dramatically different ways. Drawing on the Soviet legacy of ironic participatory popular culture, this article explores the present-day political satire online, highlights how this genre interacts with new media technology and questions its potential to challenge established power structures in the post-Soviet region. Longitudinal analysis of online political satire in two countries (2004–2013) shows the fluidity of both states’ and grassroots activists’ strategies in dealing with new media. Although the Internet can potentially offer an alternative public space, the dynamic of online political satire in both countries reveals a number of challenges which could eventually lead to the marginalisation of ‘alternative’ voices