Russia

Fidèles à la méthode consistant à présenter le travail des marxistes révolutionnaires non comme une vague attente plus ou moins sceptique d’événements qui surviennent de façon nouvelle et imprévisible et qui ouvrent au mouvement une nouvelle voie à suivre, mais comme une confrontation,continuelle des événements historiques avec la précédente « attente » et la précédente « prévision » que le parti, dans son organisation vivante et sa participation à l’action historique, est en mesure de tirer, au milieu de luttes continuelles, par la théorie qui en constitue la caractéristique et la plate-forme, nous nous sommes proposés de présenter ce que les marxistes ont développé dans le domaine du procès de l’histoire sociale en Russie ainsi que dans celui de la confrontation avec des faits historiques des développements européens et mondiaux précédents et contemporains.

The purpose of the following section in the Ukraine Policy Playbook has been designed to provide the reader with an understanding of specific topics relating to Putin’s background, his relationship with key Russian individuals, consisting predominately of Siloviki. The key individuals within Putin’s inner circle are identified, which is vital in understanding how Putin has been calling the shots in Ukraine, thus far. Predicting an unpredictable individual such as Putin, requires an understanding of the individuals the President is surrounded by. For starters, the majority of individuals within Putin’s inner circle not only have been friends of Putin since his KGB days, currently hold key governmental and NGO positions which either directly influence Putin’s decision making, and/or allow for Putin’s decisions to be implemented, instituted, and thereafter become operational.

Following the UN-sponsored peace and national partnership agreement that was signed in late-September, the Houthis continue strengthening influence throughout the government. Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s recent weakness will continue to be taken exploited. The geopolitical implications resulting from the Houthi takeover affects the geopolitical sectarian opponents in Saudi Arabia and Iran, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the United States and Russia. As Iran expands its sphere of influence throughout the Middle East, especially in Yemen, Riyadh views Tehran’s indirect involvement in Sana’a as a direct threat. Riyadh is facing threats from additional groups including the Islamic State (IS), Muslim Brotherhood, and other Shia militant groups. Productive talks between Tehran and Riyadh over the past six months prove meaningless as the Houthis political influence in Sana’a strengthens. As Houthis and Yemeni forces continue a coordinated offensive against militant groups, AQAP suffers minor setbacks from strategically held towns. Viewing the Shia power grab in Sana’a both as a threat and opportunity to expand the powerful al-Qaeda affiliate. Coupled with the Houthis lack of experience of fighting east of Sana’a, AQAP’s proven resilience and adaptability will benefit the group even as minor setbacks occur. While the interest in Yemen for Washington and Moscow falls short compared to Saudi Arabia and Iran, the destabilized regime threatens U.S. counterterrorism strategy while offering Russia an increased opportunity for arms sales. As attention continues to focus on Iraq and Syria, the growing shift of power within the Yemeni government will continue, affecting regional and non-regional actors with interests in Yemen.

Le elezioni legislative del 30 novembre hanno assegnato la vittoria alla coalizione filoeuropeista. Ma il buon risultato dei partiti vicini al Cremlino apre una stagione di incertezza, costringendo il nuovo governo a rischiosi equilibrismi tra Mosca e Bruxelles.

Si sono svolte lo scorso 14 novembre le prime esercitazioni congiunte tra le forze armate di Serbia e Russia. L’obiettivo è arginare il fenomeno del radicalismo islamico nell’est Europa, dove si annidano cellule legate ad Al Qaeda e allo Stato Islamico.

Alors que le groupe français de publicité Publicis et l'Américain Omnicom vient d’annoncer jeudi dernier qu’ils mettaient un terme à leur projet de fusion annoncé en fanfare en juillet 2013 (cette union aurait formé le numéro un mondial de la publicité); nous allons consacrer cette semaine à la publicité.

Malgré l’avortement de cette union entre le français Publicis et l'Américain Omnicom ; il semble que le secteur publicitaire se sorte peu à peu de la crise économique qui ne l’avait pas épargné. En effet, sur la seule zone euro, les dépenses des annonceurs avait chuté de plus de 15% sur la période 2008-2014. Mais la chute du marché devrait ralentir en 2014, le retour à la croissance n’est plus très loin.

Pourtant, la méforme du marché publicitaire n’a aucunement limité notre exposition aux affiches, panneaux, spots tv ou radios et autres réclames en tout genre. Bien au contraire, la publicité s’est adaptée à ses petits moyens: internet, réseaux sociaux, téléphonies sont devenus avec cette période des supports privilégiés.

Comment expliquer la reprise du marché? Dans quelles mesures les contraintes financières ont-elles obligé les publicitaires à trouver de nouvelles formes de diffusion?

Et au-delà de la crise, nous allons nous interroger ce matin sur les mutations profondes du marché publicitaires (l’essor du numérique n’ayant pas été sans effet - dans ce domaine comme dans tant d’autres).

Afin de comprendre les mutations profondes du marché publicitaire de ces dernières années, nous recevons ce matin Karine Berthelot-Guiet.

Nous prendrons la direction de la Russie avec Graham Roberts, maître de conférences à l’Université de Nanterre Paris X. Nous tenterons de comprendre avec lui quels sont les ressorts de ce marché russe de la publicité que l’on dit en « plein essor ».

L’est-il vraiment? Et sur quels supports se développe-t-il particulièrement?

Puis, nous nous intéresserons à l’Iran et aux formes que prend la publicité dans ce pays au marché florissant, et surtout aux contraintes religieux particulièrement strictes.

NB Other invited speakers :
Reza Tafrechi, sémiologue franco-iranien.
Karine Berthelot-Guiet, professeur des universités au CELSA - Université de Paris-Sorbonne.

Russia’s recent actions in its neighbourhood have not only upset Western policies but have also reinvigorated arguments that Russia may be promoting autocracy to counteract democracy promotion by the European Union and the United States. They have also underlined a broader problem: that of how illiberal powers may react to democracy promotion, especially when their strategic interests are at stake. This article investigates these issues by studying Russia’s interactions with the countries in its neighbourhood and democracy promoters. First, the article argues that even if Russia has contributed to the stagnation of democratization and ineffectiveness of democracy promotion in its neighbourhood, its actions do not constitute autocracy promotion and largely lack ideological underpinnings. Second, Russia’s counteraction to democracy promotion stems from its ambitions of restoring its great power status, maintaining its regional influence, and perceiving Western policies as a threat to its interests. Third, when it considers its strategic interests undermined, Russia employs economic and military threats (sometimes incentives) against its neighbourhood countries to make the compliance with Western policies less preferable.

This special issue examines Western efforts at democracy promotion, reactions by illiberal challengers and regional powers, and political and societal conditions in target states. We argue that Western powers are not unequivocally committed to the promotion of democracy and human rights, while non-democratic regional powers cannot simply be described as “autocracy supporters.” This article introduces the special issue. First, illiberal regional powers are likely to respond to Western efforts at democracy promotion in third countries if they perceive challenges to their geostrategic interests in the region or to the survival of their regime. Second, Western democracy promoters react to countervailing policies by illiberal regimes if they prioritize democracy and human rights goals over stability and security goals which depends in turn on their perception of the situation in the target countries and their overall relationships to the non-democratic regional powers. Third, the effects on the ground mostly depend on the domestic configuration of forces. Western democracy promoters are likely to empower liberal groups in the target countries, while countervailing efforts by non-democratic regional powers will empower illiberal groups. In some cases, though, countervailing efforts by illiberal regimes have the counter-intuitive effect of fostering democracy by strengthening democratic elites and civil society.

Russian Intersexuality: resistance and conformity

The main idea of the article is the discussion such issues as: could we consider representations of intersexuality in Russia as the internal resistance of public discourse of traditionalism? Or is a post-colonial practice of constructing national intersexuality? Or is it conformist practices?
Author tries to answer on these questions, based on reflexivity of his life experience as an intersex male activist, analysis of observations about the behavior of other intersex men and women in Russia.

Keywords: intersexuality, Russia, identity, representation.

In modern Russian society it has resurgence of ideas “traditional family values” [1]. It’s interesting in the development of renew human existence’s forms in this context. One of these forms is the intersexuality. In Russia, intersexuality is only beginning. However it has already faces with a lot of difficulties. There are the tradition of medicalized descriptions of intersex person as a genetic mutation; the public interest in an atypical abnormalities of the human body for art, media; and the influence of Western academic and activist community on the intersexuality in Russia.
So Russian intersexual person is born in these conditions. He/she is far from politics, the media, and the academic reflexivity. He / she is trying to build identity, based on their experience of reality.


References:
[1] Kondakov Al. Man and Citizen: the sexuality as a way of constructing citizenship in Russia. 2012. http://www.nlobooks.ru/node/2810