Harbingers of Russia’s Loss of Freedom Now Appeared a Decade Ago, Editors of ‘Horizontal Russia’ Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 20 – Russian social networks have been publishing articles about the differences in that country between 2016 and 2026. The editors of Horizontal Russia, a portal that keeps track of developments outside of the Moscow agglomeration, has now added a contribution to these discussions.

            They focus on three developments in 2016 they say are defining the Russian situation now – the Yanovaya Law on tightening control over the Internet, the use of attacks on people identified as foreign agents to suppress opposition, and the dispatch of far more outsiders to rule the regions (semnasem.org/articles/2026/01/20/sobytiya-2016-opredelili-2026).

            First, in 2016, the Duma passed legislation significantly increasing punishments for extremist and terrorist crimes and opening the way for the powers that be to punish people for what they posted on the internet and not just for specific real-world actions. Now, that approach has become the basis of Putin’s increasing authoritarianism.

            Second, also in 2016, the Russian government carried out the first persecution of those identified as foreign agents, initially directed at organizations receiving foreign funds but now expanded to include the targeting of individuals suspected of being influenced by hostile foreign governments and organizations.

            And third, in that year, Putin dramatically increased his insertion of outsiders as governors of the federal subjects and since then has increased their number and reduced the voice of regional elites in this selection process and thus has reduced these people from being political figures to being only managers who must carry out the Kremlin’s wishes.

            These three trends and the fact that they grew from small moves to large ones over the course of a decade characterize the nature of the Putin regime as they have made the political system in the Russian Federation ever more authoritarian, the editors of Horizontal Russia suggest.

            And by their arguments regarding these three steps and their introduction, they suggest the way in which Russians and outside observers should evaluate each new Kremlin step, not as an end point designed to deal with what the measure is nominally about but as the springboard for even more dramatic actions later.