A Rock and a Hard Place: The Russian Opposition in a Time of War

This talk looks at how the opposition space in Russia has been impacted by and responded to the war in Ukraine. In particular, this talk analyzes the extent to which the systemic opposition in Russia plays the role of safely channeling criticism versus proselytizing the line given by the government on the war. This talk will also examine how the non-systemic, or real opposition, has publicly reacted to the war, how the public has reacted to the positions taken by the opposition, and how the opposition has been impacted by the war and the positions they have taken on it, with an eye to the implications this has for what role the pre-war opposition in Russia will be able to play going forward.

Jeremy Ladd researches opposition political parties and movements in electoral authoritarian regimes and emerging democracies. He is particularly interested in explaining why some parties and movements in these contexts are so successful while others are not. He is also interested in how both authoritarians and their opponents are adapting to the digital world. Jeremy’s comparative research is currently focused on Southeast Asia and Russia and the Post-Soviet region. His research on Southeast Asia was recently awarded a Southeast Asia Research Group Fellow award for 2022.

In addition to, and intertwined with Jeremy’s substantive research interests, he has substantial interests in political methodology and data science.

Jeremy is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University where he is teaching the PhD quantitative methods sequence and an undergraduate course focused on data science applications in political science research. Before coming to Cornell, Jeremy was an assistant teaching professor of political science and social data analytics at Penn State University from 2019 to 2022. Jeremy earned his PhD in political studies from Queen’s University.