During his first year as president, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly declared that the rebuilding of the Russian state is his very highest priority. Indeed, on this score there is now a remarkably widespread political consensus among Russian liberals, nationalists, and former Communists: all agree that the Russian central government must find some means of enforcing its own laws in order to reverse the nation's prolonged decline in the post-Soviet period. Prominent Western analysts and advisors, too, proclaim that successful state-building in the Russian Federation is the prerequisite for sustainable political and economic development–as well as the only means of attaining reliable control over Russia's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. But on the question of how a future strong Russian state might be built, elite opinion in both Russia and the West remains vague and contradictory. […]
Memo #:
148
Series:
1
PDF:
PDF URL:
http://www.gwu.edu/~ieresgwu/assets/docs/ponars/pm_0148.pdf