1,720,983 research outputs found
Guerrilla Art and Protest in Modern Russia
Get PDFThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2013This paper looks at the connection between guerrilla art and protest in modern Russia, specifically in the major cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow. A historical context is provided to show the long tradition of guerrilla art in Russia. Collective action frames, framing processes, and narrative are used to explain how guerrilla art has been used in protest movements. While the author includes some of her original documentation of street art found in both major city centers, she also draws upon the relationship between two of the more famous Russian guerrilla art collectives, Voina and Pussy Riot, and Russian authority
The Presidential Vlog: Trust and the Celebritization of Politics in Ukraine
Get PDFThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2021Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy, popular in Ukraine for playing the president on TV, shocked many commentators when he was elected president in reality. Of particular interest however, is the scope of his victory and style of his campaign. Zelenskyy was touted as being the first presidential candidate whose campaign was entirely digital. That is, he communicated with supporters and the public at large entirely through his social media platforms, most notably in his YouTube campaign vlog: Ze!President. But Zelenskyy’s victory is most peculiar given the democratic context in which it occurred. He was the first Ukrainian presidential candidate to unite the electorate in the country’s independent history, as Ukraine’s regions are typically electorally divided. Further, before his election Ukrainians reported the lowest levels of trust in the government in the world. Yet Zelenskyy garnered the highest ratings of trust a Ukrainian president has ever received. On its face, his victory appears merely to be confirmation of what scholars describe as the celebritization of politics: a candidate-centric shift in the political landscape facilitated by the culture of social media. I argue that Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s election reveals an underappreciated dynamic of celebritization: political trust. I argue that Volodymyr Zelenskyy gained the trust of the electorate by maintaining the image of a uniquely authentic Ukrainian patriot through airing an episodic documentary of the campaign on YouTube. While his particular brand of patriotism was made up of an inclusive populism and embrace of cultural-hybridity, an analysis of Zelenskyy’s image constructed via the vlog serves to convince the audience that his patriotism is truly authentic; thus, trustworthy. Ultimately, these findings indicate that political celebritization may be driven by dwindling trust in government, and that in such environments, citizens display such interest in the personal profiles of political leaders in order to scrutinize them for authenticity
Russia's fight against drug trafficking: Challenges in developing local law enforcement capabilities
Get PDFThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2013This thesis discusses trafficking as a distinct form of organized crime. It highlights the different qualities of mafias and trafficking networks, the two dominant forms of organized crime in Russia. The four distinct qualities addressed are function, the potential for legalization of their operations, relationship to the state and state employees, and limits inherent in their geographic scope of activity. Studies conducted on two border programs that operate in post-Soviet states, EUBAM and BOMCA, provide real-world examples of challenges posed by traffickers, as well as challenges that exist in the current policing structures of Russia. The final section briefly offers policy suggestions that Russia should implement in order to refocus their anti-organized crime efforts to fighting trafficking
The Instrumentalization of Language in Putin’s Russia
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2020Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has taken a sharp turn toward conservative values and an identity that is based on traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, as defined by the state. A consistent element in the state discourse regarding this values and morality-based identity is the call to protect and promote the Russian language. This paper demonstrates the ways in which language and language policy have been instrumentalized under Putin to pursue three separate, yet interconnected, priorities: to create a new Russian identity, to export Russian soft power, and to support domestic and foreign policy goals. This study briefly addresses the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in these efforts and seeks to situate language policy within Putin’s broader political strategy. As the Russian president continues in his attempts to consolidate power, language and language policy will continue to be important aspects of this strategy. Although attempts to purify and shape language are historically ultimately unsuccessful, there is reason to believe that the Russian state will continue to instrumentalize the Russian language and language policy to define a narrow version of the Russian identity—one that is used to justify continued repression of those who do not assimilate
Host land or homeland?: Civic-cultural identity and banal integration in Latvia
Get PDFThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2017-06This dissertation challenges conventional approaches in the study of minority integration by looking at the spaces in which integration occurs, rather than at instances of conflict. It develops a framework that considers banal manifestations of social integration in quotidian and national life. Concentrating on the case study of Russian-speakers and ethnic titulars in Latvia, it compares top-down, elite-led discourse on integration with lived interethnic interactions. In many conventional analyses, Latvia is considered a divided society wherein ethnic, linguistic, and cultural cleavages separate ethnic Latvians from the proportionally large population of Russian-speakers “left behind” when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. This population has been analyzed through immigrant, diaspora, and fifth column frameworks that suggest Russian speakers remain outside of the Latvian state and nation, if not always civically, then certainly culturally. This dissertation argues the frameworks and indicators traditionally used to measure integration do not sufficiently consider integration in everyday experiences, and therefore overlook much of the integration that is occurring on the ground. Rather, banality – or the lived experiences that fade into the hum of everyday life – is an indicator of significant interpersonal and socio-national integration that incorporates minorities as active members of the nation. The dissertation considers relevant theories in the study of integration, nationalism, and identity to create frameworks of interpersonal and socio-national banal integration. These capture both person-to-person experiences and minority engagement with society and the state. The dissertation then links the theoretical concept with three critical elements in the Latvian integration debate. First, it notes the disconnect between top-down integration priorities and ground-level realities. Second, it examines banal integration in daily life, looking at interpersonal interactions, public spaces, and civic connections with the state. Finally, the dissertation considers the ways in which minorities engage as embedded members of the Latvian nation, looking at participation in cultural events and national holidays. Theoretically, this dissertation highlights the necessity of prioritizing banal, quotidian experiences over elite-led discourse in the study of integration. Methodologically, it accomplishes this goal through a multi-method approach, using extant document summary and analysis, medium-n survey data, and qualitative ethnography. Empirically, the dissertation pushes back against a narrative of conflict in Latvian and Russian-speaker relations. Indeed, it argues that not only is Latvian society far less divided than it discursively appears, in many cases, minorities see themselves as active members of the Latvian cultural and civic nation, not tangential to it. This dissertation is a dedicated analysis of the Latvian case, but contributes more broadly to the literature on post-Soviet diaspora and migration studies, integration studies, and questions of nationalism and identity in the modern global context
Misinformation in Global Media: Causes, Consequences, and Accountability
No full textThis report focuses on the factors that have led to the increase in misinformation spreading on social media platforms, as well as the methods used by powerful political actors to continue distributing inaccurate or politically motivated information. This report details the extensive issues that result from increasing public distrust in the media caused by the distribution of such high volumes of misinformation. The case studies demonstrate the severe consequences of the polarization in ideologies that have emerged through the rapid spread of misinformation on these platforms. Based on these issues, this report calls for implementing policy recommendations that will increase accountability measures on the most prominent actors of misinformation campaigns, while increasing overall awareness of the dangers of misinformation
Legitimated State Repression in Authoritarian Regimes: Russia, 2010 - 2017
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2019This research aims to reveal and to account for the moderate levels of state repression under contemporary authoritarian regimes, focusing on the case of Russia. I show in this research that, contrary to the previous research and the conventional image of an omnipresent and a strong authoritarian state, the state’s deployment of coercion in Russia has been relatively mild in its severity. I argue that such moderate repression is a by-product of the regime’s pursuit of legitimacy, which leads the state to follow legally established procedures of coercion. Despite the formality of authoritarian institutions, the original design of repression made at the top is reshaped by the judicial institutions, as different actors of the repressive apparatus whose incentives do not necessarily align with those of the central state inevitably involve in constituting and enacting the state’s repressive policies. To prove this thesis, I analyzed the legislation that specifically targets the newly growing civil society and the processes by which such laws are applied, using data on the final verdicts from Russian federal and district courts, reports on judicial persecution by monitoring organizations, and interviews. The case of Russia reveals that the preexisting incentive structure of the repressive apparatus as a whole prefers quantity over quality in the direction of avoiding bureaucratic liability. This, in turn, dictates the terms of the investigation, prosecution, and, finally, courts’ rulings. The newly adopted repressive laws targeting dissent movements aid the tendency as the laws point to widening discretion in general due to dubiously defined jurisdiction, the vague contents of provisions, and expanding regulations that punish minor misconducts than felonies. The confluence of the repressive laws and the incentive structure results in a proliferating rate of convictions with light punishment, accounting for the relatively mild level of coercion
The Elephant, the Donkey, and Ukraine: The Partisanship of the Ukrainian Diaspora in America
Get PDFThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2021The Ukrainian diaspora in the U.S. is a growing group whose American partisanship has scarcely been examined outside of diaspora-related media. This study makes use of interviews with Ukrainians in the Seattle metropolitan area to uncover how Ukrainians in the U.S. make and explain their partisan choices at the individual level. Core factors influencing Ukrainians’ party preference include generation and education, religion and values, and views on the role of government. An additional section investigates how Ukrainians across the political spectrum responded to the Trump administration’s controversial actions in regard to Russia and Ukraine as well as immigration. The findings suggest Ukrainian identity and concern for Ukraine are seldom the driving factors shaping partisanship or vote choice. However, Ukrainian identity does mediate and inform partisanship. Across generations, members of the Ukrainian diaspora rely on and reference experiences associated with Ukrainian identity to formulate and justify their political views. Thus, Ukrainians’ partisanship is often shaped by factors that affect the party preferences of many people in the U.S., but Ukrainians often employ narratives based on Ukrainian identity to explain why such factors matter to them. This study contributes to three bodies of literature: diaspora studies, as it looks at how the Ukrainian diaspora negotiates homeland and host country identities and interests; post-Soviet studies, as it examines how Ukrainians in the U.S. are responding to Soviet and post-Soviet legacies through their politics; and U.S. partisanship studies, as it sheds light on the political views of an understudied diaspora
Anti-Trafficking Policy Compliance with International Norms in Estonia and the Former Soviet Space
Get PDFThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06Estonia, European Union member and leader developmentally among the countries that emerged from the former Soviet space, dramatically underperforms compared to these countries when it comes to anti-human trafficking policy compliance with international norms. Why is this? Using ordinary least squares regression and standard deviation, I demonstrate that Estonia has a poor anti-human trafficking policy compliance record in part because of discrimination against its sizeable Russian minority population. This has implications for security in the region, and the effect of discrimination based on ethnic background on anti-human trafficking policy compliance with international norms should be further researched on a universal basis
Resources for Crafting Sovereignties in Breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia: Politics of Nationhood within the Rivalry between Russia and Georgia
Get PDFThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2018This thesis is aimed at analysis of nation making in Georgia’s breakaway territories engaging certain aspects of foreign and domestic affairs that might be viewed as sources for crafting sovereignties in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. For this purpose, I deal with historiography and collective memory as a source of justification of secession and sovereignty, and relevant political interpretation of these discourses that have mobilising effects in the respective societies. Demographic changes and politics of ethnic consolidation after the wars for independence in 1990s and Russian-Georgian war in 2008, and their influence on legitimacy of elites of the respective political entities, are also examined in order to gain more understanding of state building in Georgia’s breakaway republics. Russia’s efforts to support nation building in Abkhazia and South Ossetia through financial, human, symbolic-emotional and political investment is one more aspect brought into analysis. Overall goal for studying domestic and international resources of crafting polities in breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is to understand how these post-war societies construct their identities, institutions and statehood under influence of the contested geopolitical environment. This will benefit an academic approach in regional studies that will meet interests of scholars, international organisations, non-state actors and policy-makers focused on conflict transformation and resolution
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