No. 120: Legislation and Governance

This edition examines recent developments in Russia and their impact on issues of governance. In the first article, Ben Aris analyses the impact of the Magnitsky Act in the US on Russia and its relationship with the West. He suggests that the Kremlin views the Magnitsky Act as a politically-motivated attempt to interfere in Russian domestic affairs, and that the Magnitsky case has not had a big impact on either Russian domestic governance or political debate. In the second article, Bill Bowring considers the new law that requires NGOs in Russia with foreign funding and that are engaged in 'political activities' to register as 'foreign agents'. It is concluded that at present most NGOs are still trying to clarify the exact meaning of the vague concepts within the new law, but it seems clear that it is aimed at those NGOs deemed to be a political threat to the Putin regime. In the third article, Jonas Grätz examines the recent Rosneft-TNK-BP deal. He argues that it is unlikely that the takeover of TNK-BP by Rosneft will bring efficiency gains to the Russian oil industry, and that instead this move is driven by a desire to ease systemic tensions in Russia by expanding the regime’s influence over external markets.