Russia After Communism

Russia’s emergence from Soviet Communism, ‘a revolution without shots’, did not result in civil war and bloodshed, as in 1917. But the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 still came as a shock and the subsequent chaos (with hyperinflation, political turmoil and a messy war in Chechnya) revealed that the post-Communist transition was by no means cost free. The Putin era brought increased stability and prosperity, but also loss of political freedom, increased power of the state, weakening of the rule of law, increased nationalism and a rift between Russia and the West. What is Russia’s place in the world now? And what does the turbulence of the last 25 years tell us about where it is heading?