In Russia in the 2000s, relations between the government and human rights groups presented contrasts. This article uses the example of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) to illustrate the ambivalence in the state's policy towards civil society. On one hand, there is obvious official repression of human rights activists, whether by stigmatizing their relations with foreign partners or prohibiting their political activism. MHG activists are regularly victims of this repression. On the other hand, the authorities have initiated and institutionalized cooperation with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). For example, a programme of presidential grants has been set up for both NGOs close to the government and independent ones, such as MHG. This dual policy towards Russian NGOs is often seen as reflecting the hybrid nature of the regime. I argue that this hybridity has led to a decline in direct physical violence against activists and an increasing use of administrative and legal procedures for controlling them. NGOs' action is becoming 'juridified' and depoliticized in order to facilitate control from the authorities. These changes are contributing to the 'civility of oppression' exerted by the government over NGOs

In Russia, since 2011, the Yandex.News aggregator (Yandex.Novosti) — the Russian equivalent to Google News — has been suspected of political bias in the context of protests against electoral fraud followed by the Ukrainian crisis. This article first outlines the issues associated with automated news recommendation systems, their role as “algorithmic gatekeepers” and the questions they raise in terms of news diversity and possible manipulation. It then analyses the controversies which have developed around Yandex.News, particularly since the authorities have decided to regulate the way it operates through a law adopted in 2016. Finally, it provides an audit of Yandex.News aggregation in 2020, through a quantitative analysis of its database of sources and of the Top 5 results presented on the Yandex homepage. It shows the discrepancy between the diversity of the Russian online mediasphere and the narrowness of the Yandex.News media sample. This research contributes to the sociology of digital platforms and the study of “governance by algorithms”, showing how the Yandex news aggregator is a key asset in the Russian government’s overall disciplining of the country’s media and digital public sphere, in an ongoing effort to assert “digital sovereignty”.

en ce début de XXI e siècle, le patriotisme connaît, en certains lieux et contextes, un succès qui ne se dément pas. C'est particulièrement le cas en Russie : « Parce qu'il avait été l'une des principales composantes de l'idéologie soviétique, le patriotisme est devenu tabou après la chute de l'URSS. Pourtant, depuis l'arrivée au pouvoir de Vladimir Poutine, un nouveau patriotisme d'État a été instauré et le terme de « patriote » a cessé d'être un stigmate. Le revendiquer est même devenu une posture obligée dans l'espace public russe, un mode de légitimation », note Myriam Désert dans l'article qu'elle livre pour ce dossier. L'idée de réunir plusieurs contributions évoquant autant de « figures » du patriotisme aujourd'hui est née précisément de ce constat, tiré d'une recherche collective sur « Les pratiques patriotiques au quotidien dans la Russie contemporaine » 1. Les réflexions initiées dans le cadre de cette recherche nous ont conduites progressivement à élargir notre questionnement et à nous intéresser à d'autres terrains que la Russie. C'est donc un regard comparatif que nous porterons sur les réalités contemporaines du patriotisme dans différentes aires géographiques et politiques.

State control over the Russian internet (Runet) has been enforced by dedicated administrations and private digital entrepreneurs since the early 2010s. Along with them, groups of digital vigilantes report on "negative" online content and claim to be fighting against activities considered to be criminal or contrary to social norms. However, their ideological convictions and moral supports are diverse and changing. This article analyses two nonprofits: Molodezhnaia Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (MSB, Youth Security Service) and Liga Bezopasnogo Interneta (LBI, Safe Internet League), which sponsors an emergent "cyber Cossack" movement. MSB, which can be referred to as "citizen investigators," has developed a high degree of technical and legal experience and cooperates actively with the police. LBI promotes a conservative vigilantism to ensure "virtuous browsing," with a strong focus on education. In March 2019 hearings at the Russian Civic Chamber on a bill addressing the activity of kiberdruzhiny (cyber patrols) revealed tensions between the "politically involved" (Duma members and kiberdruzhiny's organizations) supporting the bill and the "experts" (representatives of internet companies and security specialists) opposed to it alleging the proposed law's inefficiency. A third group, the supporters of a free and democratic Runet, is absent from the official debates but speaks out on social networks and through independent media against the development of civil surveillance.

Pursuing the autonomisation and “sovereignisation” of their national Internet (RuNet) since the early 2010s, authorities in the Russian Federation are establishing increasingly stricter regulations on Internet innovation and practices. Since 2018, the team of the ResisTIC (Criticism and circumvention of digital borders in Russia) project explores how different actors of the RuNet resist and adapt to the recent wave of authoritarian and centralizing regulations. One of the project’s primary objectives is to explore the extent to which control and circumvention strategies are embedded in, and conducted by means of the infrastructure of the RuNet. This special issue provides a detailed overview of the different strands of research undertaken by the ResisTIC project team at the crossroads of digital sovereignty, data and infrastructure. Articles by the project team are entwined with contributions by specialists based in Russia and worldwide.