Staunton, September 28 – Given that Russians increasingly have “ceased to believe” in scholarship and turned to conspiracy theories of one kind or another, Boris Kagarlitsky says, it is perhaps not surprising that many of them including many in the Russian government have accepted the latest example of such theories, that of “administered chaos.” And […]
Staunton, May 24 – Igor Eidman, who has argued that Putin’s Russia represents the coming together of the worst features of the Soviet past and Western capitalism, says that this “negative convergence” involves far more than economics. In a post on Kasparov.ru yesterday, the Moscow analyst argues that almost wherever one looks in Putin’s Russia, […]
Staunton, May 22 – What is taking place in Donetsk and Luhansk is not a civil war because it isn’t a struggle about the definition of the direction of all of Ukraine, Yevgeny Ikhlov argues. And it isn’t a fratricidal armed conflict because local elites are not providing the insurgent forces with support. Instead, he […]
Staunton, May 12 – Vladimir Putin’s system represents a combination of “all the worst features of capitalism and socialism,” a fusion that represents “’negative convergence’ and one that has created “a monster,” according to Igor Eidman, a Russian sociologist and commentator who now lives in Germany. In an essay on Kasparov.ru today, Eidman notes that […]
Staunton, May 1 – Vladimir Putin is taking care of his basic electorate, pensioners and government employees, at the expense of the private sector, Yevgeny Gontmakher says. And because Moscow increasingly lacks the funds to do so, the Kremlin leader will take ever more money from business, a shift popular in the near term but […]
