On a Personal Note - Editorial Comment by Russia Profile Staff

Russia Profile brings you some of the best analysis on top stories in Russia today. But there's always more behind them. Each Friday, our writers provide their own take on the news, offering unique commentary to put events into a different perspective. This week, both Tai Adelaja and Dan Peleschuk wonder if Russia is heading straight back to its Soviet period, albeit for different reasons.

file photoIt's a joke, right? "Foreign agents?" In its passing today through Russia's State Duma, the new legislation, requiring all political non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with funding from abroad to register as "foreign agents," evokes the most Soviet of terribly authoritarian traditions.

To me, it seems like it's been dragged one step further from President Vladimir Putin's original crusade against NGOs several years earlier, when, shortly after the spate of post-Soviet "color revolutions" that rattled the Kremlin's nerves, the regime began restricting a wide array of NGO work. Now, it's simply not enough to bog down their work; they have to be shamed into "confessing" as "foreign agents" ­ which, for all intents and purposes, is to be branded a traitor.

Quite frankly, I'd been among those who, while observing the wave of discontent wash over the country in recent months, never thought the Kremlin would react so poorly. Countless analysts had predicted a far-reaching crackdown, but for some reason, I thought, "They can't be that foolish." Perhaps it's just my own short-sighted judgment (I also didn't think Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich would keep opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko in jail this long, though that's another story). I figured that, in the last months of Dmitry Medvedev's presidency, the authorities would've learned a thing or two about how not to piss off ­ at the very least ­ the urban intelligentsia. As the winter proved so well, it takes not one giant mistake, but a steady string of small missteps to trigger mass anger.

But clearly, that's not the case, and it only highlights how short-sighted and, for a lack of better description, "Soviet" the Putin regime truly is. Ironically enough, in a country that offers fertile ground for enterprising journalists, that's all there is to say about this. And while the Duma breaks for its summer recess today, only the next couple months will show how serious the Putin regime is about its reversion to outdated, Soviet thinking in an increasingly globalized ­ and connected ­ world.

Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics, Putin Power - Russian News - Russia

On a Personal Note - Editorial Comment by Russia Profile Staff

Russia Profile brings you some of the best analysis on top stories in Russia today. But there's always more behind them. Each Friday, our writers provide their own take on the news, offering unique commentary to put events into a different perspective. This week, both Tai Adelaja and Dan Peleschuk wonder if Russia is heading straight back to its Soviet period, albeit for different reasons.

file photoIt's a joke, right? "Foreign agents?" In its passing today through Russia's State Duma, the new legislation, requiring all political non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with funding from abroad to register as "foreign agents," evokes the most Soviet of terribly authoritarian traditions.

To me, it seems like it's been dragged one step further from President Vladimir Putin's original crusade against NGOs several years earlier, when, shortly after the spate of post-Soviet "color revolutions" that rattled the Kremlin's nerves, the regime began restricting a wide array of NGO work. Now, it's simply not enough to bog down their work; they have to be shamed into "confessing" as "foreign agents" ­ which, for all intents and purposes, is to be branded a traitor.

Quite frankly, I'd been among those who, while observing the wave of discontent wash over the country in recent months, never thought the Kremlin would react so poorly. Countless analysts had predicted a far-reaching crackdown, but for some reason, I thought, "They can't be that foolish." Perhaps it's just my own short-sighted judgment (I also didn't think Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich would keep opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko in jail this long, though that's another story). I figured that, in the last months of Dmitry Medvedev's presidency, the authorities would've learned a thing or two about how not to piss off ­ at the very least ­ the urban intelligentsia. As the winter proved so well, it takes not one giant mistake, but a steady string of small missteps to trigger mass anger.

But clearly, that's not the case, and it only highlights how short-sighted and, for a lack of better description, "Soviet" the Putin regime truly is. Ironically enough, in a country that offers fertile ground for enterprising journalists, that's all there is to say about this. And while the Duma breaks for its summer recess today, only the next couple months will show how serious the Putin regime is about its reversion to outdated, Soviet thinking in an increasingly globalized ­ and connected ­ world.