Looming over both Moscow’s blatant intervention in the U.S. election and the Trump Administration’s continued struggle to develop a coherent Russia policy is the simple, but persistent question: Who lost Russia? How did Russia go from a fledgling democracy after the fall of the Soviet Union to the authoritarian bully we grapple with today?Some blame Obama. Some blame George W. Bush. Some blame NATO expansion. Some blame the Washington Consensus, or insufficient aid during the 1990s. But these scapegoats all reflect classic American solipsism. In reality, nobody “lost” Russia; there is relatively little the U.S. government could have done to …read more
Source: The American Interest
