For several years now, the Georgian protests have been attracting international attention. From March 2023 to the end of 2024, people took to the streets every day, despite police violence and criminal prosecution. Georgians opposed laws modeled on Russian legislation, challenged the re-election of the ruling Georgian Dream party, and protested against the rejection of European integration. Journalist Sasha Fokina spoke with Georgian left-wing activists, who described the state of civil society after the protests.

Last year, Alexei Navalny initiated a discussion about the role of the 1990s era in the formation of the modern Russian regime. This debate was eagerly supported by the majority of the Russian left, for whom it became an opportunity to remind once again about the undemocratic nature of the formula of democracy as the power of 'democrats'. Nevertheless, questions about the design of the political system of post-Soviet Russia often remain in the background of this discussion. Alexander Zamyatin shows how the political struggle between the "democrats" and the Mossovet on the eve of the first Moscow mayoral elections in 1991 laid the foundations of the system of power in Russia - from plebiscites to the power vertical.

"September" met with mathematician and Russian left-wing politician Mikhail Lobanov to discuss his foreign agent status and his dismissal from the university. We also discussed the potential approaches to anti-war political organizing in Russia and beyond, and learned about Mikhail's plans for the "long-term political mission trip" he embarked on a month ago.

September met with a municipal deputy of Moscow’s Zyuzino district and an author of For Democracy: Local Politics Against Depoliticization, Alexandr Zamyatin to discuss the reasons to take part in local elections in times of war, depoliticization in Russian and Western societies, and how to overcome it, VyDvizhenie — a support platform for independent candidates Zamyatin founded together with Mikhail Lobanov, — and on the recent transformations of Russian political regime.