Political opposition in Russia: the challenges of mobilisation and the political-civil society nexus

Russia witnessed an unprecedented wave of large-scale street protests during the winter of 2011-2012, following the parliamentary elections of December 2011. The protests provided further evidence of an emerging trend in Russian political opposition politics: collaboration between political and civil society. Drawing on the work of Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, this article analyses the dynamic between political and civil society within the broad opposition movement in Russia and concludes that close collaboration between the two may be a crucial factor in any effective challenge to the electoral authoritarian regime in Russia.