Two mistaken ideas about Russia are drifting around Washington, DC, and other Western capitals. One is that the fall in the oil price has crippled the regime of Vladimir Putin, so we can relax. The other – contradictory – one is that the economic crisis has made Putin desperate and therefore dangerous, so we should offer him a face-saving retreat.
Both are wrong, though both have a grain of truth. Clearly the low oil price, and economic sanctions, have reduced the regime’s room for manoeuvre in some ways. Putin had to cancel his prize project of the South Stream pipeline, designed …read more
Source: European Voice
