Authors

Discussion

With sturdy academic interest in government elites, political opposition in authoritarian regimes has received notably less attention. Exploring such forces is yet essential to grasp the operational dynamics of state politics and assess the complex role opposition may play in it—rightly assumed to be at the forefront of popular resistance, evidence from different parts of the world suggests that opposition can also facilitate the sustainability of autocratic rule, often inadvertently. This article investigates diverse strategies of non-governmental actors in Russia and Belarus, uncovering the existing patterns and their impacts. The study adopts a practice-centred approach to introduce a new typology of political opposition, moving away from conventional actor-based classifications—notably the systemic vs. non-systemic dichotomy. Through a comparative content analysis of 75 interviews with Russian and Belarusian opposition figures and experts, four new types of opposition are identified: professional, venture, casual, and latent. Each type is measured via operational elements behind the emergence and transformation of their relevant practices—habitus, reform, participation, and finance,—as evident from the analysis of interviews, public discourses, and policies. This typology seeks to address the limitations of actor-based approaches which impose rigid roles and expectations on opposition actors, fostering restrictive self-conceptions within those groups and keeping the analysis away from capturing fine-grained mechanisms behind their activity. Offering a robust analytical foundation for opposition studies in Russia and Belarus, this work seeks to serve as a methodological framework for broader research of non-governmental actors across the globe.