Tag Archives: siloviki

The lonely hegemon

Posted on April 29, 2016 by

Last week, Nikolay Petrov, an astute Russia-watcher published an interesting article on the website of the European Council on Foreign Relations. In  this, he identified five dynamics that shaped Russian politics these days and declared that Putin’s regime had a … Continue reading →

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That awkward moment

Posted on February 5, 2016 by

Many families have an awkward, inconvenient relative: an uncle, an aunt, a wayward son – the kind of person who is increasingly out of touch with the world around them, listens to no one, knows no manners and comes up … Continue reading →

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An obituary

Posted on March 17, 2015 by

Yes, I read the news today. Vladimir Putin is alive and seemingly well. His handshake is firm, judging from the expression on the face of the president of Kyrgyzstan, and he may even have driven the car between two places … Continue reading →

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The bonfire of rationality

Posted on February 28, 2015 by

Yesterday I was going to post a long and detailed entry about Vladimir Putin’s priority list. About the way priorities were exposed during times of crisis and scarcity. I was going to draw a comparison with my college days in … Continue reading →

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A tale of two choices

Posted on January 29, 2015 by

Oil prices tumble, the Russian economy is in recession, the Russian elite is nervous, but Vladimir Putin is smart enough to avoid the traps that the Soviet Union fell into – in a nutshell, this is the argument of Richard … Continue reading →

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Europe’s game – Part 2

Posted on December 8, 2014 by

In the previous entry, I argued that Europe had to push forward with sanctions on Russia, despite the imminent threat of a Russian economic crisis. However, Europe’s game does not end here. It has to carefully observe the movements within the … Continue reading →

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When the wells run dry

Posted on October 25, 2014 by

Those critical of Western sanctions against Russia usually point at the fact that these measures have so far failed to do their job. They failed to bring meaningful changes in Russia’s foreign and domestic policies and failed to stop the … Continue reading →

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