‘Foreign agents’ in the field of social policy research: The demise of civil liberties and academic freedom in contemporary Russia

Abstract

Independent scholarship in the Russian social sciences has received significant support from the West in the 1990s, but since 2000, it has faced increasing difficulties. In this overview, the authors describe the development of the non-profit sector and its relationship with academia from the founding of the Soviet state to today, paying particular attention to the social sciences and social policy analysis. The survival of many independent research facilities established over the last decades is threatened by a government deeply suspicious of Western influence. This will limit the possibilities to include Russia in comparative research and make collaboration between Russian and international social scientists much more difficult.