Can Putin Rebuild the Russian State?
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…
Foreign Policy Under Putin: Pro-Western Pragmatism Might Be a Greater Challenge to the West
As Russia prepares for early presidential elections, the foreign policy strategy of the most likely winner–acting President Vladimir Putin–is the subject of much speculation. Will he be pro- or anti-Western?…
The Unintended Consequences of Anti-Federalist Centralization in Russia
Since becoming the Acting President of the Russian Federation in late 1999, Vladimir Putin has spoken with utmost clarity about his concern for the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation…
The Reality and Myths of Nuclear Regionalism in Russia
In 1998, retired General Aleksandr Lebed, governor of Krasnoyarsk krai, declared that he would assume control of a Strategic Rocket Forces division deployed on the territory of his region unless…
The Importance of the Politics of Friendship for Contemporary Russia
Some observers hold that the friendship ties that are so prevalent in post-Communist Russia may prove to be a saving grace for the country. With other resources for ensuring peaceful…
Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Applying Lessons from Soviet Disintegration to the Russian Federation
The economic meltdown of 1998 has renewed fears that Russia is doomed to disintegrate like the star-crossed union from which it sprang in 1991. The history of the Soviet collapse…
Russian-US Relations in the Post Post-Cold War World
Other than coining of clever titles and claiming something new, is there any value to asking whether Russian-US relations are entering a post-post-Cold War world? I think so, because we…
Food Aid to Russia: The Fallacies of US Policy
For the past nine years, the United States has provided large amounts of free and highly subsidized food to Russia. Some of this aid has come in the form of…
The Company They Keep: Some Observations on Russian Management
In recent remarks delivered at Harvard University, Boris Brevnov, former Chief Executive Officer of Russian energy utility giant Unified Energy Systems (UES), noted that Russia's greatest challenge since 1991 has…
The Dissonant Concert: US-Russian Relations in the UN Security Council
How can we best understand the ambiguous relationship between the United States and Russia in the United Nations today? On the one hand, their debates and disagreements are heated, and…
Evaluating Democracy Assistance to Eastern Europe and Eurasia
Little is known–although much is believed–about the impact of democracy assistance on institutional development in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, carried out on a transnational level by Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs)…
The IMF-Russian Negotiations and Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
The continuing standoff between the Russian government and the IMF threatens the nuclear non-proliferation regime. Dialogue with the Russian government, the Cooperative Threat Reduction program (also known as Nunn-Lugar), sanctions…