... regimes can survive in the long run only if they are supported by society, or at least if there is not sufficient support for resistance.
Has there been a rollback of democracy in Russia? Was Boris Yeltsin more of a democrat than Mikhail Gorbachev or Vladimir Putin? In 1993, Yeltsin illegally dissolved the Supreme Soviet, and shelled the Russian White House, resulting in the deaths of 187 people. He unconstitutionally scrapped the existing constitution, and temporarily banned political opposition....
... assumption. When I ask Russians if they see an alternative, they usually can say what they don't like about Putin. But I have I have yet to hear anyone present a credible alternative.
Mikhail Gorbachev, reflecting the view of a large part of the Russian public, once said that Putin literally saved Russia. Yet the difficulty of imaging a country after the departure of an extraordinary leader is not unique to Russia under Putin. Think of the French trying to imagine France after de Gaulle? What ...
... essential for success.
Putin began his third term as President of Russia in 2012. Yet, he did not just coast back into the Presidency. Many people in Russia, including much of the elite, were unhappy about his decision to return to the Presidency, and the Russian public is no longer disposed to curl up and play dead, no matter what Putin does. Moreover, for the first time in the history of post-Soviet Russia, there is a significant number of high-profile individuals, publically taking divergent stances ...
... There is no reason why a Russian version of liberal democracy should not eventually emerge, but this cannot happen overnight. Political forces have been crystallizing, real public issues have begun to capture the attention of significant parts of the Russian public, credible leaders have started to appear on the political scene. The leadership of the Russian state is fully aware of this, and has been striving to manage this process of gradual decompression.
The new Putin, unlike the earlier Putin,...
