Although authoritarian states have expanded their tools to surveil citizens and spread disinformation, we know little about how political lawyers have mobilized to resist such covert strategies. Based on semi-structured interviews with Russian lawyers and open-government consultants, this article examines how political lawyers oppose three emerging authoritarian tactics of the Russian government: running disinformation campaigns by “troll factories,” wiretapping, and hiding information on government activities and public services. I find that, despite the repressive legal environment, lawyers have considerable success in developing legal and nonlegal strategies to hold government to account. As autocrats rely on information control to portray themselves as capable leaders, political lawyers and open-government consultants use audits and rankings to undermine political reputations. These findings from Russia may be broadly applicable to new authoritarian states in general.

中文翻译：

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间谍、谎言、审判和巨魔：俄罗斯反对虚假信息和国家监视的政治律师

尽管威权国家扩大了监视公民和传播虚假信息的工具，但我们对政治律师如何动员起来抵制这种隐蔽策略知之甚少。本文基于对俄罗斯律师和开放政府顾问的半结构化访谈，探讨政治律师如何反对俄罗斯政府的三种新兴威权策略：通过“巨魔工厂”开展虚假宣传活动、窃听以及隐藏有关政府活动和公众的信息。服务。我发现，尽管有压制性的法律环境，律师在制定法律和非法律策略以追究政府责任方面取得了相当大的成功。由于独裁者依靠信息控制将自己描绘成有能力的领导者，政治律师和公开政府顾问利用审计和排名来破坏政治声誉。俄罗斯的这些发现可能广泛适用于一般的新威权国家。