Executive Summary
> Despite United Russia's impressive result,
winning 76.22 per cent of the seats in the Duma,
the 2016 Russian legislative elections have been
characterised by the lowest turnout since 1993.
The new composition of the Duma does not
reflect the economic and social challenges
currently faced by the Putin regime.
> Both the low turnout and the unrepresentativeness
of the Duma suggest that opposing voices
are not effectively integrated in the democratic
process in the Russian Federation. As a result,
significant protest potential looms in Russian
society.
> The Putin regime resorts especially to an
assertive foreign policy to cover up domestic
problems, making the country a continuously
unstable interlocutor for the European Union.
> To deal with this instability, the EU should adopt
a strategy operating with two time horizons: in
the short term, it should confront Russian foreign
policy assertiveness with resoluteness and
cohesiveness. In the long term, it should prepare
itself for potentially major changes in Russian
society, notably by building stronger expertise on
Russia and its political system inside the EU and
by more strongly engaging with Russian civil society
