| | | | Can Protests Work in Russia? | | Russian politician and Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was among hundreds of protesters detained in anti-corruption demonstrations across Russia today. The big question is whether this growing protest movement can spur serious political opposition to Vladimir Putin, write Kathrin Hille and Max Seddon in the Financial Times.
"Although comprehensive statistics are hard to come by, analysts say the economic pain from the two-year long recession — triggered by the oil price crash and western sanctions — led to a spike in protest activity in 2015 and 2016," according to Hille and Seddon. "The Centre of Economic and Political Reform, a non-governmental group in Moscow, counted 1,141 protests just on labour issues last year."
"Mr Navalny has one core objective: to tie the causes of the different protesters to the issue of corruption — the cornerstone of his campaign. His ability to make that link will determine whether Russia's protests fizzle out or become a force for political change."
| | After a dramatic year for Europe that included Brexit and continued backlash over the refugee crisis, the continent is "starting to get its mojo back," writes Matthew Karnitschnig in Politico.
The latest sign is the strong showing of French President Emmanuel Macron's new centrist party in parliamentary elections on Sunday. The party, La Republique En Marche, is expected to end up with over 70 percent of the seats in the lower house.
"The doomsayers were right about one thing — Europe's political winds are shifting. Just not the way most anticipated," Karnitschnig writes.
"For Europe, the significance of the French vote is that for the first time since the introduction of the euro, the Continent's second-largest country has a leader with the will and the mandate to pursue a deep reform of the European Union."
"The question is whether Angela Merkel is ready to lock arms with her new French partner."
| | Canadian Counterpoint: "Relax, America still has our back" | | | In a speech to parliament last week and on GPS yesterday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland argued that the United States is receding from global leadership under President Donald Trump, and called on Canada to help fill the gap. Globe and Mail columnist Konrad Yakabuski thinks this fear of U.S. isolationism is "much overblown."
"Yes, Mr. Trump withdrew his country from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Paris climate accord," Yakabuski writes. "But the former was unlikely to ever make it through the U.S. Congress, while the latter is a worthy but ultimately toothless document that provides environmental cover for greenwashing governments (including Canada's) rather than actually doing much to stall global warming."
"If Canada's sudden talk of hard power was truly a reaction to U.S. isolationism it would not be limply backed up by a 20-year, backend-loaded defence spending wish list, but by an immediate boost in military expenditures and a global tour by Ms. Freeland to revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Instead, Canada's defence budget will barely budge during Mr. Trump's first term and grow only modestly during – perish the thought – his second."
| | Indonesia: Saudi Arabia's
Biggest Victim | | The country to watch when it comes to the pernicious effects of Saudi Arabia's foreign policy is Indonesia, argues Stephen Kinzer in the Boston Globe.
"Saudi Arabia has been working for decades to pull Indonesia away from moderate Islam and toward the austere Wahhabi form that is state religion in Saudi Arabia," Kinzer writes.
"The center of Saudi Arabia's campaign to convert Indonesians to Wahhabi Islam is a tuition-free university in Jakarta known by the acronym LIPIA. All instruction is in Arabic, given mainly by preachers from Saudi Arabia and nearby countries. Genders are kept apart; strict dress codes are enforced; and music, television, and 'loud laughter' are forbidden. Students learn an ultra-conservative form of Islam that favors hand amputation for thieves, stoning for adulterers, and death for gays and blasphemers."
Pinzer concludes. "By refusing to protest or even officially acknowledge this far-reaching project, we finance our own assassins — and global terror."
| | Refugees: Good for the U.S. Budget | | In the long term, refugees contribute more in U.S. taxes than they take, according to a new paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research. (H/T to Vox's Matthew Yglesias.)
"A number of commentators have argued that the refugee program is too expensive given the direct costs of resettlement and the high costs of participation in social service programs by refugees," the paper notes.
"At the start of their U.S. residency, refugees do extract high costs because of the direct costs of relocation and high welfare use. However, over time these costs decrease quickly, and our estimates show that over a twenty-year period, refugees pay $21,000 more in taxes than they receive in benefits."
| | Does the U.S. Need Its Own BBC? | | The idea that someone like Trump could become prime minister in Britain is "preposterous," in part due to differences between the two country's media environments, argues James Kirchick in GQ. Though the U.K. has its own problems with tabloids and celebrity culture, it also has what Kirchick calls "a credible, high-quality, trusted public broadcaster in the form of the BBC."
"One thing Americans ought to realise in the wake of Trump is that, with respect to media, the free market cannot be the answer to everything," Kirchick writes. "Americans are right to treasure the First Amendment, the greatest articulation of free expression man has ever known, beautiful in its concision. But the constitutional provision for a marketplace of ideas – which, to be clear, should be limitless and unimpeded – does not ensure that this marketplace will be of high quality, or provide citizens with the knowledge necessary to function as members of a democratic society. In this sense, America needs a BBC."
"While people everywhere across the Western world are gradually cocooning into partisan echo chambers (due in large part to the internet), this negative phenomenon is far more profound in the United States than it is in Britain or Canada, other Anglophone countries with well-funded, widely-watched public media outlets."
| | For those who enjoyed former FBI Director James Comey's blockbuster testimony last week, there's more in store Tuesday: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is set to testify at a public hearing tomorrow afternoon, also in front of the Senate intelligence committee. It will be his first testimony in Congress after recusing himself from federal investigations into Russia in March.
On Sunday, French voters will return to the polls for the second round of the country's parliamentary elections. Much attention will be paid not only to the size of Macron's party's expected victory, but also to the turnout rate: Less than half the country's eligible voters took place in the first round yesterday, a record low.
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