This autumn marks the start of an insecure election year in Russia. On 18 March 2018 Putin will most likely be re-elected for his fourth presidential term. But what is to be done with the rallies of the opposition leader Navalny? And can the Kremlin concoct a convincing election mode of its own? This is the first installment of a monthly column that our security expert Mark Galeotti will write for RaamopRusland. For the Kremlin the question is: ‘Who is the bigger threat, apathy or Navalny?’
The thought experiment known as Schrödinger’s Cat suggests an experiment in which, until a box is opened, it is impossible to know if the cat inside it is dead or alive, so until that point, it is both dead and alive. In March 2018, Russia will elect a president, but for the moment, this is still ‘Schrödinger’s Election’, a campaign that is at once not yet begun, and well under way. Read more about it in the new monthly column on Russian politics by Mark Galeotti for the Dutch site RaamopRusland (Window on Russia).
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