The author writes:

• Having failed to chart a workable path for Russia’s future and having lost a race with the so-called global West and a rising global East centered on China, Putin’s regime is unable to abandon its leadership ambitions. Instead it is directing all of its energy into clawing its way back to a storied past. The Russian system under Putin has stopped playing catch-up when it comes to long-overdue tasks connected to modernization. It has started pursuing demodernization, a stage of development that has culminated in the “special operation” in Ukraine.
• Putin presumably was once perfectly comfortable with the idea of building a retro-style utopia. Unfortunately for him, that goal has by now morphed completely into a terrifying dystopia made up of scraps from the darkest chapters of Russia’s past. Such a basis for Russian statehood and its role on the international stage look even more preposterous in the twenty-first century. The Kremlin’s penchant for embracing a nationalist imperial ideology has once again lived up to its self-destructive reputation.

Read the full article on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website.

The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author. Photo by haberlernet NET shared under a public licence.