Covid-19 and the Russian Regional Response: Blame Diffusion and Attitudes to Pandemic Governance
As was the case with other federal states, Russia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was decentralized and devolved responsibility to regional governors. Contrary to the common highly centralized governance in Russia, this approach is thought to have helped insulate the government from criticism. Using local research and analysis based on a national representative survey carried out at the height of the pandemic during the summer of 2021, the article charts the public response to the pandemic across Russia. It examines the regionalization of the response, with an in-depth focus on two of the Russian cities with the highest infection rates but differing responses to the pandemic: St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk. There are two main findings: at one level, the diffusion of responsibility meant little distinction was made between the different levels of government by the population; at another level, approval of the pandemic measures was tied strongly to trust levels in central and regional government.
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; Vol. 16 No. 1 (2023): Responses to Covid-19 Pandemic Policies ; 29-54
Centre for European Studies, Carleton University
Copyright (c) 2023 Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies
A “Good” Samaritan? The Geopolitics of Russia’s Covid-19 Assistance
Between March and December of 2020, more than three dozen states received various types of COVID-19 assistance from Moscow. The Russian government emphasized a humanitarian character of what has become the largest package of emergency aid since Russia’s independence. The Western governments and commentators cautioned that Moscow had strategic and nefarious motives in choosing the recipients of its coronavirus aid. This study theorizes humanitarian aid allocations by authoritarian states and tests theoretical expectations using novel data on Russia’s COVID-19 aid allocations. Far from being driven by humanitarian concerns, Russia has used humanitarian assistance for projecting power on the global stage and supporting diverse political objectives. Moscow’s use of humanitarian aid for geopolitical benefits has not been a critical disruptor in the humanitarian system by itself. However, jointly with other instruments of foreign policy, Russia’s approaches to humanitarianism can be detrimental to the future of the international humanitarian system.
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; Vol. 16 No. 1 (2023): Responses to Covid-19 Pandemic Policies ; 1-28
Restrictive COVID-19 policies in selected EU countries and Russia: an Institutional Approach
Based on empirical quantitative data, the article provides a comparative analysis of existing studies of the policy of countering COVID-19 infection in selected European Union countries and Russia, the specifics of restrictive governmental measures (including institutional dimension), and also provides a quantitative analysis of the relationship between the severity of epidemiological situation in a particular country, the stringency of governmental response measures, and the institutional characteristics of the country (including the quality of healthcare, management, the level of public trust in the government, value orientations, etc.), which determine the specifics of measures taken and their effectiveness. Using the developed index of the severity of the epidemiological situation, institutional characteristics that most affect the effectiveness of the measures applied and, if possible, allow combining the relatively easy passage of the pandemic with relatively lax measures were identified.
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; Vol. 16 No. 1 (2023): Responses to Covid-19 Pandemic Policies ; 55-81
European Right-Wing Populist Parties’ Approach toward China: Between Anti-Globalization and Appeal for Diversified International Partnerships
The aim of this paper is to examine questions that have not yet been researched thoroughly: how are the positions of the RRPs on China shaping and changing, what causes such differing positions on China among these RPPs, and have there been any changes in their approach to China in the times of COVID-19? This paper aims to answer these questions by analyzing the policies toward China of said political parties (primarily, the Hungarian Fidesz, Italian Lega Nord, French Rassemblement National, but also parties such as the British UKIP, the PiS, Dutch PVV, and the German AfD). The paper underlines that RPPs’ policies on China are formulated basing on what they perceive the development of international politics can do “for the people”. Their attitudes depend mainly on their stance toward free-market globalization, their need for alternatives in relations with the US and the EU, and their axiological perception of China.
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; Vol. 15 No. 2 (2022): Fall 2022; 1-24
Copyright (c) 2022 Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies
Curating Russia: The Shchukin Collection, Nationalism, and Border Crossing from Lenin to Putin
Russia’s relationship with nation is marred by contradictions that stem from its place in comparison to the West. Cultural nationalism in artistic production originated with the arrival of the Peredvizhniki [Wanderers] in the 1870s. Moscow merchant Pavel Tretyakov, in collecting Russian and European art, openly embraced a nation that encompassed Western ideas in conjunction with distinctly Russian themes. The unparalleled collecting of French modern art by Moscow merchants Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov in the early 20th century continued this embrace. The nature of their collected paintings produced shockwaves in late tsarist and Soviet society and politics before being inculcated into Russian national identity in the 21st century. This article explores the life of Henri Matisse’s The Dance (1909), commissioned by Sergei Shchukin. It follows the work across time and regimes as it assumes pride of place in not only Russia’s national collections but also within its identity. Through a focus on the 2008 exhibition From Russia at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, this article examines Russia’s relations and protection of this work to understand, why even as the country seeks to define itself once more actively through its opposition to the West, their cultural diplomacy speaks to an openness built on a transnational history of the most prized works in their national collections.
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; Vol. 15 No. 1 (2022): Summer 2022; 43-60
The Impact of the 2020 Constitutional Changes on Authoritarian Constitutionalism in Russia: Judicial Pragmatism Between the Russian Constitutional Court (RCC) and the State
In 2003 Yukos, the largest private oil company in Russia at the time, was in the middle of merger talks with ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil, an unprecedented deal which would have created the largest oil company in the world. The other shoe dropped when later that year, Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested on charges of tax fraud. Yukos was sold for parts in court-mandated auctions and through a series of manoeuvres, eventually acquired by state oil company Rosneft. Since Yukos was auctioned off at staggeringly low prices, Yukos shareholders suffered a tremendous loss of capital and have since appealed to the international courts. For nearly two decades, the shareholders and the Russian government have continued to overturn and reinstate compensation rulings of a $50 billion payout in international courts. My research question is: what are the implications of the recent constitutional changes on authoritarian constitutionalism in Russia and judicial pragmatism between the RCC and the state? This paper is threefold: In Part I, I trace the authoritarian constitutionalism balancing act in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In Part II, I trace key developments of the Yukos trials and the immediate responsive constitutional changes in Russia to argue that the Yukos trials were the elephant in the room in major Russian Constitutional Court (RCC) decisions. In Part III, I illustrate the severity of the recent constitutional changes in Russia for judicial independence. I argue that the constitutional changes accelerated by the Yukos trials have offset the RCC’s balancing act of judicial pragmatism with the state by formally erasing the separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary.
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; Vol. 15 No. 1 (2022): Summer 2022; 24-42
Strategic Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?
The increasing number and severity of security crises around the European periphery have called into question the preparedness and capability of European states. Civil wars, mass migration, unstable institutions, and direct kinetic conflict are features of a degrading security order in which European states must provide a strategic response. One such response has seen the European Union (EU) become increasingly involved in security issues, namely the defence industry. Programs such as the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) are now enabling Member States to organize civil-military responses to crises and coordinate the defence-planning cycles of 25 European countries through the EU. This article examines why Member States have begun to use the EU to develop military capabilities and assets at scale. Furthermore, it investigates the role of differentiation in enabling these developments and how both individual geopolitical and economic factors contribute to this collective institutional development.
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; Vol. 15 No. 2 (2022): Fall 2022; 25-54
Introduction: Carbon Politics in Canada and Europe
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; Vol. 14 No. 2 (2020): Carbon Politics in Canada and Europe: Coping with Jurisdictional and Interest Diversity; 1-8
Copyright (c) 2021 Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; Vol. 14 No. 1 (2020): Canada-Russia Relations; 1-5
The European Union’s Response to Rising Xeno-Racism in Europe: An Assessment
Ever since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Europe has experienced a huge influx of refugees, which has led to demographic and social changes and created fears about the erosion of the European civilisation and Christian values. The Continent has also experienced several Islamic terrorist attacks- like those in Paris, London, Brussels and Berlin. This, coupled with the rise of the right-wing in Europe, has led to increasing xeno-racism, particularly of an Islamophobic variety that has resulted in the creation of an environment of intolerance and exclusion. At times this has manifested itself as outright hostility towards the Muslim community through hate crimes which take the form of physical and verbal attacks on visibly identifiable and more tangible symbols of Islam like hijabs, headscarves, burkhas and mosques. Yet, most of these hate crimes remain unreported and unaddressed. The European Union (EU) is a one of a kind post-modern entity professing values of equality, democracy and human rights. Given this commitment, this paper attempts to take stock of the EU’s response to rising xeno-racism with particular attention to Islamophobia and the Member States’ attempts to grapple with the same.
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; Vol. 15 No. 1 (2022): Summer 2022; 1-23