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Policy makers have professed it. Business elites have argued it. Political commentators have heralded it. The Internet has been dubbed as a unique tool capable of breeding political liberalisation and unseating undemocratic regimes across the world. As political writers have pointed towards the Soviet Union's inability to manage information flows as the cause for its demise, others have continued along the lines of similar assumptions and see the Internet as a force which can topple contemporary post-communist regimes.

This thesis challenges such generalizations by focusing on the political impact of the Internet in the context of two undemocratic states of the post-Soviet space, Russia and Belarus. Unlike traditional judgements, it does not rush into simplistic and de-contextualised assertions. Instead, by drawing on primary sources from social media platforms and the website environment, it presents the Internet as a contradictory force. On the one hand, it can provide individuals opposed to the regimes with a valuable tool to challenge the repressive political status quo in both states, but, on the other hand, it can additionally serve to strengthen the political rule of the regimes in power.

Alex Rubin is a recent graduate from UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies and studied MA Politics, Security and Integration. This piece gained the Frank Carter Postgraduate Prize for No.1 Research Dissertation in the department.