Russia's rich oil reserves are helping the country regain prominence. Under Vladimir Putin and his sucessor, Dmitry Medvedev, nationalism has grown as well.
Is it a return to Soviet-era systems and beliefs? Or has the nation moved into a different paradigm?
Author Steve LeVine says the country is stained by a "culture of death," from assassinations of state critics to possible Kremlin indifference in hostage crises- The Commonwealth Club of California
Bio
John B. Dunlop
John B. Dunlop is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
He is an expert on Russia's two wars in Chechnya, nationalism in the former Soviet Union, Russian cultural politics, and the politics of religion in Russia. His current research focuses on the conflict in Chechnya, Russian politics since 1985, Russia and the successor states of the former Soviet Union, Russian nationalism, and the politics of religion in Russia.
In 1995 and 1996, Dunlop was an official election observer for both the Russian parliamentary election and the first round of the Russian presidential election. In 1998, he served as an observer for the presidential elections in Azerbaijan.
His most recent publications include The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Empire (Princeton University Press, 1995) as well as numerous articles and chapters in books regarding political, social, and cultural developments in the states of the former Soviet Union. Dunlop's book Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict was published by Cambridge University Press in 1998.
Steve LeVine
Steve LeVine covers foreign affairs and energy for BusinessWeek. He is based in Washington, D.C.
Previously he was based in Central Asia and the Caucasus for 11 years -- starting two weeks after the Soviet collapse through 2003. He ran The Wall Street Journal bureau for the eight-nation region, and before that covered it for The New York Times.
"Putin started that war"
I stopped watching right there.
And I doubt that the quality improved further into the video, although I'm pretty sure this guy knows what a BS he's talking. What can you expect from a "Levine". How typical.
While things are not perfect, it's certainly much better now in Russia than it was during Yeltsin's reign, I mean anyone with some grasp of foreign affairs should know that. The economy is in better shape and less people - journalists, politicians and others - are killed now than during Yeltsin's reign. Oh, and Putin never bombed his own parliament building like Yeltsin did. But Yeltsin was a democrat for US foreign policy hawks while Putin isn't, the hypocrisy is glaringly obvious. How come these foreign policy hawks never focus on the issue of democracy and human rights in US allies like Turkey and Saudi Arabia? Oh, silly me, I answered my own question - because they are allies. These issues surface if and only if they diverge from US foreign policy aims, truly democratic. I guess some things will never change despite the end of the cold war two decades ago...
People who haven't lived in those sorts of dark states find it difficult to comprehend how much courage it requires to state your judgement in public, and the real danger that that involves.
whoever killed Anna Politskaya wants to stay in the dark, and what people like this man are doing is helping to shine light on people who would rather stay in the shadows.