{"656127":{"#nid":"656127","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Anti-war Movement in Russia may be \u2018Wishful Thinking\u2019 According to HSOC Professor","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMedia outlets report that thousands of anti-war activists have been arrested in Russia as the Ukraine conflict continues. Whether these protests will grow into a movement powerful enough to influence the Russian government to end the war remains to be seen, but this hope may be \u0026ldquo;wishful thinking,\u0026rdquo; according to political sociologist \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/kate-pride-brown\u0022\u003EKate Pride Brown.\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBrown, an assistant professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/hsoc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of History and Sociology\u003C\/a\u003E, studies the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/14742837.2016.1191338?casa_token=unByBZAv0PAAAAAA%3A7Idd5VakCFZrKWGTBFZJ_tz2f2B2D9EX4KYvQPko-moZEHiG6csFcal-B8F8R9jkBQ_SqmTAbZ8\u0022\u003Econditions of activism in Russia\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/oxford.universitypressscholarship.com\/view\/10.1093\/oso\/9780190660949.001.0001\/oso-9780190660949\u0022\u003Eauthored a book\u003C\/a\u003E about environmental activism at Lake Baikal. She explains that activism relies on social trust, of which people living under authoritarian regimes tend to have little.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026quot;There are high levels of distrust amongst the public in general, so activism itself has been a fairly rare thing in Russia,\u0026quot; Brown says. Russian citizens endure high levels of instability, corruption, and media censorship, all of which stack the odds against action. Additionally, Russian legislation such as the 2012 Foreign Agent Law has shut down many groups whose messages were threatening to the state. Some of the groups that have ceased operation, like\u0026nbsp;Memorial and the Committee of Soldiers\u0026#39; Mothers, might otherwise have been key opponents to the present conflict, Brown speculates.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026quot;To expect a large anti-war movement to blossom immediately in response to this invasion is wishful thinking on the part of Western countries, but I don\u0026#39;t think that it\u0026#39;s impossible. It\u0026#39;s just that there\u0026#39;s a habit of the heart, a habit of mind that works against activism in Russia,\u0026quot; Brown says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAnother factor quelling anti-war activism in Russia is the Kremlin itself. The Russian government sees civil society as a threat to its power and thus seeks to suppress it in order to contain public opinion and control the war\u0026#39;s narrative.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026quot;The truth is that the Russian people are not clamoring for this war and don\u0026#39;t see Ukrainians as enemies. So, the government has to maintain the state\u0026#39;s narrative that this is a small action, that they will be welcomed by Ukrainians, that the fight is about de-Nazification, and that the West is the aggressor. But all of that is daily harder to prove,\u0026quot; Brown says. \u0026quot;Activists on the ground in Russia are spreading an alternative narrative that absolutely would undermine the war effort. So to continue their actions in Ukraine, the Kremlin needs to contain that narrative.\u0026quot;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis is important because activism relies on people taking action simply because they believe it\u0026#39;s the right thing to do \u0026mdash; and that\u0026#39;s pretty powerful, says Brown. Authoritarian regimes cannot assume they have public support. Since social movement activism presents an alternative power source, they use the power of law to contain it.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPolitical openings, such as another member of the Russian elite standing up to Putin, could mobilize people to protest en masse, says Brown. So might \u0026quot;moral shocks,\u0026quot; such as videos of the bombings that are spreading online or the increasing number of Russian casualties that result from a prolonged military engagement. However, \u0026ldquo;there is always a level of unpredictability to it,\u0026rdquo; she continues. \u0026ldquo;What is going to spur people to come out?\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EMore experts from Georgia Tech and the Ivan Allen College weigh in on\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/news.gatech.edu\/features\/2022\/02\/understanding-ukrainerussia-conflict\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EUnderstanding the Russia\/Ukraine Conflict.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Assistant Professor Kate Pride Brown explains that activism relies on social trust, of which people living under authoritarian regimes tend to have little.\u00a0"}],"uid":"35766","created_gmt":"2022-03-08 18:02:34","changed_gmt":"2022-03-08 18:15:49","author":"dminardi3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2022-03-08T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2022-03-08T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"656129":{"id":"656129","type":"image","title":"Protest against the war in Ukraine","body":null,"created":"1646763146","gmt_created":"2022-03-08 18:12:26","changed":"1646763522","gmt_changed":"2022-03-08 18:18:42","alt":"Protest against the war in Ukraine with Ukrainian flags and a sign reading \u0022no war\u0022","file":{"fid":"248737","name":"16 x 9 Aspect Ratio (3200 x 1800 px) (20).png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/16%20x%209%20Aspect%20Ratio%20%283200%20x%201800%20px%29%20%2820%29.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/16%20x%209%20Aspect%20Ratio%20%283200%20x%201800%20px%29%20%2820%29.png","mime":"image\/png","size":5422202,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/16%20x%209%20Aspect%20Ratio%20%283200%20x%201800%20px%29%20%2820%29.png?itok=N9hORyhH"}}},"media_ids":["656129"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1288","name":"School of History and Sociology"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDi Minardi\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003Edi.minardi@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["dminardi3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}