Join NYU's Jordan Center for a talk with Olena Nikolayenko on the geographic dispersion of protest behavior in contemporary Russia as illustrated by the protests against corruption in March 2017.

On March 26, 2017 thousands of people in nearly one hundred Russian cities participated in anti-corruption protests. This episode of contention was triggered by opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s release of a YouTube video clip, exposing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s extravagant lifestyle and opaque business deals. It was one of the largest protests since post-election mass mobilization in the winter of 2011. Nonetheless, the level of citizens’ participation in the anti-corruption rallies varied across the country. As many as 4,000 people gathered near the monument to Vladimir Vysotsky in Novosibirsk, Russia’s third largest city situated in Siberia. In contrast, approximately 300 people, making up almost one percent of the city’s population, joined the protest in Kaluga, located less than 200 kilometers away from Moscow.

Speaker

Olena Nikolayenko, associate professor of political science and associate chair for undergraduate studies, Fordham University