Transnational Diaspora, Civic and Political Participation and Political Remittances: The Case of Recent Russian Migrants to the EU

Politically motivated migration from Russia has considerably increased after the 2011 Bolotnaya Square protests and subsequent repressions against oppositional politicians and democratically oriented civil society, with the EU member states being popular destination. Thanks to pre-existing considerable social capital, developed social networks as well as civic and political participation experience and required skills, many of the recent political migrants have not only continued their civic and political engagement in their host countries, but have also been cooperating with their peers across the national borders, forming a transnational pro-democratic diaspora. Their transnational civic and political participation aimed at democratising Russia can be analysed as a form of political remittances. The aim of this article is to reconstruct the process of political remitting through social actors’ agency, through an ongoing dialogue between theory and empirical research. The paper looks into forms and strategies of civic and political participation, including politically inspired artistic expression as well as varies forms of transnational cooperation of the recent Russian political migrants and analyses the channels of social and political remittances. The analysis is based on the results of participant observation research, a series of qualitative interviews with Russian post-2011 political migrants based in ten EU member-states as well as an analyses of internet-based resources.