In the midst of an unraveling international order, the Russian system of personalized power, an obsolete construct that has lost the ability to modernize itself, somehow manages to fight on. In its struggle for survival it pursues a strategy of simultaneously being “with the West, inside the West, and against the West.” Having previously reincarnated itself by dumping the old state (the Soviet Union) and partnering with the liberal democracies and imitating their institutions, today the System has pivoted to containment of the West.Is Russia ready for a confrontation with Western civilization? Hardly. But is the Russian leader a kamikaze, …read more
Source: The American Interest
