The Web That Failed

How the Russian State Co-opted a Growing Internet Opposition Movement

Author(s): Floriana Fossato
Editor(s): Jeronim Perovic, Robert Orttung, Matthias Neumann, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 50
Pages: 12-15
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2008

Barack Obama's presidential campaign demonstrated how sophisticated on-line strategies can mobilize a broad offline electorate. Many optimists had hoped that the Internet would similarly energize people living under authoritarian governments to come together for the sake of advancing democratic reforms. That outcome has not been achieved in Russia so far. A case study of Svoboda Vybora, an association of automobilists that effectively used on-line organizing techniques, demonstrates how the authorities can neutralize potentially powerful opposition movements through the use of subtle co-optation.

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