Online Public Sphere in Russia and Its Role In The Movement “For Fair Elections”

Litvinenko A.A.

In: Vilaams marxistisch tijdschrift, Nr.1, 2012. P. 130 – 134.

This article examines the evolution of the online public sphere in Russia and its de- mocratic potential, which was several years ago considered as ‘failed’ (Oates, 2008; Fossato, 2008). However the for- mation of the protest movement “For fair elections” in the Internet in December 2011, that managed a spill-over from on- line into offline public sphere, has shown that the RuNet was underestimated. The author argues that the democratic potenti- al of the Russian Web has undergone rapid development, not only due to the political conjuncture, but also because of the emer- gence of a new generation of young “digi- tal natives” coming into political activism. The author also analyses specific features of the online social mobilization in Russia and makes conclusions about the perspec- tives of deliberative discourse within the Russian web.