Putin's ‘Preventive Counter-Revolution’: Post-Soviet Authoritarianism and the Spectre of Velvet Revolution

Abstract

This article examines the emergence of a mobilisational authoritarian regime during Putin's second term. It argues that this development was shaped by the repercussions within Russia of ‘velvet revolutions’ in former Soviet republics. On the one hand, it traces the growth of the perception that Russia faced an imminent revolutionary threat. On the other, it shows how the Kremlin's counter-measures—the creation of the youth movement Nashi, the imposition of controls on the NGO sector, and the elaboration of ‘sovereign democracy’ as an unofficial state ideology—were directed against a domestic threat.