57 The DualiTy of CoerCion in russia: CraCking Down on “foreign agenTs” Françoise Daucé eHess/cercec/iuF Abstract: This article examines the complexity of oppression in contemporary Russia. On one hand, the authorities in 2012 passed a repressive law that brands many human rights organizations as “foreign agents.” On the other, the state offers cooperation and provides funding for many of the very groups it stigmatizes under the law. The result is that the activists are in doubt, with each association working to address its own particular situation. As each organization focuses on its specific problems, the groups are weakened in their ability to work together to contest oppressive politics. S ince the end of 2008, Freedom House has classified Russia as a “consol- idated authoritarian regime.” 1 This designation is justified, in part, by Russia’s repressive measures against independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country. The situation only deteriorated when Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin in 2012 for a third presidential term. As Human Rights Watch put it, “The crackdown after Putin’s May 2012 inauguration follows an authoritarian trajectory that began in 2004, when the Kremlin facilitated the dismantling of checks and balances on central executive power and cracked down on foreign-funded nongovern- mental organizations.” 2 1 Robert W. Orttung. 2009. “Russia,” Nations in Transit 2009. New York: Freedom House, https://freedomhouse.org/report/nations-transit/2009/russia#.VLyMfEfF-So 2 Laws of Attrition. Crackdown on Russia’s Civil Society after Putin’s Return to the Pres- idency. Human Rights Watch, 2013. p. 15. (http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/ russia0413_ForUpload.pdf). Françoise Daucé is a Professor (Directrice d’études) at the Center for Russian, Caucasian and East-European Studies (CERCEC) at the School of Advanced Social Sciences Studies (EHESS) in Paris and member of the Institut Universitaire de France. E-mail: francoise.dauce@ehess.fr.