One doesn’t need to be a Russian domestic radical or a foreign Russophobe to see major flaws in the way Russia is ruled. The population, however, is satisfied with the status quo...for now.
The Russian leadership lives in a tension-ridden house. Putin and Medvedev’s tandem system is beginning to falter. The recession has exposed frictions between the two men and revealed Putin’s inadequacies...
Since the end of the cold war, American foreign policy toward Russia has been dismissive of Russian interests. Acknowledging that a country has separate aims does not mean we cannot work toward common goals.
With the rise in oil prices and a conservative fiscal policy, Russia turned from a debtor nation into an economic powerhouse, creating a compromise between the excesses of the free market and the inefficiencies of a command economy
