Navalny, Putin, Protests, and the Crisis in Russia w/ Ilya Budraitskis and Ilya Mateev

On this edition of Parallax Views, what is happening in Russia? Who is Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny? What are the protests in Russia against Putin about? Should discussion of the protests be centered on Navalny or do these protests transcend even him?

Joining us to explore these questions are Ilya Mateev and Ilya Budtraitskis, who penned the February 2021 article "Putin's Majorty" for the New Left Review. Mateev and Budraitskis joins us directly from Russia to offer a perspective outisde of the one's found in both the American mainstream press and the American Left. Mateev and Budtraitskis discuss state repression in Russia, skepticism of Navalny and his neoliberal programs, the Russian Left critique of Putin, the two major opposing views amongst the Russian Left of the protests, the role of youths in the protests, Vladimir Putin and Capitalism, street politics in Russia, inequality and elite privilege in Russia, the role of the internet in political engagement and exploration of ideology in Russia, the Kremlin, and much, much more.