Author Description

Explores the momentous changes that have taken place in the Russian nationalism since Putin's return to the presidencyRussia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 marked a watershed in post-Cold War European history and brought East-West relations to a low. At the same time, by selling this fateful action in starkly nationalist language, the Putin regime achieved record-high popularity. This book shows how, after the large-scale 2011-13 anti-Putin demonstrations in major Russian cities and the parallel rise in xenophobia related to the Kremlin's perceived inability to deal with the influx of Central Asian labour migrants, the annexation of Crimea generated strong 'rallying around the nation' and 'rallying around the leader' effects. The contributors to this collection go beyond the news headlines to focus on overlooked aspects of Russian society such as intellectual racism and growing xenophobia. These developments are contextualised with an overview of Russian nationalism: state-led, grassroots and the tensions between the two.ContributorsHelge Blakkisrud, Senior Researcher and Head of the Research Group on Russia, Eurasia and the Arctic, at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Oslo, Norway. J. Paul Goode, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) of Russian Politics at the University of Bath, UK. Robert Horvath, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and Philosophy at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Eleanor Knott, Fellow in Qualitative Methodology, and from September 2017 an Assistant Professor in the Department of Methodology at the London School of Economics, UK. Pål Kolstø, Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Oslo. Michael Komin, Senior Expert at the Centre for Strategic Research in Moscow, and holds an MA degree in Political Science from the National Research University-Higher School of Economics in St Petersburg, Russia. Alexandra Kuznetsova, PhD candidate at the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice, Universi