This article examines how “spiritual-moral values” (SMV) became securitized, or defined as
a matter of national security in Russia. I analyze speech acts to show how moves to …

The article identifies a new model for Russia’s modernization emerging among the “systemic
liberals.” Offering politically neutral technological fixes, this model cannot be understood …

This article is the first academic study of Russia as a “rogue state.” From a moderately
constructivist perspective and relying on Nincic’s distinction between primary and secondary …

On the case of present-day Russia, this article proposes a novel way to conceptualize the
intelligence-politics nexus, or else, the mutual politicization of intelligence and ‘…

Drawing on theories of political myth and concepts of nationalism, Jardar Østbø analyzes
the content and ideological function of the myth of Russia as a Third Rome. Through case …

The world has been bombarded in recent years with images of the luxurious lives and wealth
of corrupt oligarchs and kleptocrats, amassed at the expense of ordinary people. Such …

This article proposes a new approach to understanding Russian pro-regime counter-demonstrations,
arguing that starting from 2014, they have acquired a distinctively demobilizational …

The Russian authoritarian regime is not necessarily immoral, but its morality shares characteristics
with that of street gangsters—and aristocrats. As argued in this article, there are two …

… ©2021 Jardar Østbø. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) …

… timely subjects: the fears of weaponized corruption and the West’s targeting of Russian
oligarchs and kleptocrats by imposing sanctions on their luxury assets and gigayachts (Østbø …