After a remarkably fraught and complicated 2015, Vladimir Putin’s Russia finds itself still sanctioned by the West for its conduct in Ukraine, dogged by falling oil prices and dicing with a deadly conflict in Syria. And it’s increasingly difficult to foresee the challenges Putin and his country will face in 2016—or how they will handle them.
Decision-making in Moscow has become highly consolidated and hostage to the whimsy of Putin and his group think-prone advisers. And whether in the domestic realm or in the international environment, trying to decode a Russian grand strategy is a monumental challenge for anyone who tries.
The …read more
Source: The Epoch Times
