http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/13/opinion/what-the-west-gets-wrong-about-russia.html
According to Gleb Pavlovsky, the Kremlin is "still enigmatic, but no longer strategic." Kremlin policy is now "fashioned rather like the music of a jazz group; its continuing improvisation is an attempt to survive the latest crisis." Pavlovsky thinks Putin "lost interest in day-to-day decision making" after the accession of Crimea to Russia when he won the support of more than 80 percent...
..., as in our American primary systems? What if elections are heavily influenced by big money and criminalized elites as they are, at least to some extent, in the former Soviet republics, or in the boss-dominated politics of earlier stages of American democracy?
On the other hand, it seems odd to label such leaders as Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenka (Belarus) "undemocratic." Despite whatever falsification of elections has taken place, independent polls show them to have continually maintained remarkable approval ratings for over ten years. True, the ...
... somehow still see themselves as the true voice of The People.
It is difficult to imagine this Russian Opposition participating in round tables like those in which the leaderships of several East European Communist regimes negotiated transition to democracy with their oppositions. In a recent interview, the leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland, Lech Walensa said "They [the Communists] tried to outsmart us, and we tried to outsmart them." It is difficult to image the Russian Opposition ...