Sketching the Russian Everyman

Abstract

Why have elections in Russia turned into an obscene formality everyone is all right with? Where are the full-blooded political life and public dispute gone? Where is Russian civil society? Why is there a steady feeling that most of our compatriots are totally indifferent to this? Why won’t they exploit what’s left of the existing democracy mechanisms and unite to defend their interests in order to influence the current power? The leading sociologists from Levada-center are trying to sketch a Russia’s citizen as of today.

E-mail: gudkov@levada.ru

Key words: Russia’s citizen, Russia’s citizen, civil society, democracy, power, public dispute