

The spread of terrorism and subversive activity in the North Caucasus under Vladimir Putin indicate a need for fresh policy thinking; instead, Putin and the bureaucracy have clamped down, blaming the problem on international terrorists and ignoring rampant corruption and disaffection in Russia's border lands.



The Russian state is incapable of following Ukraine's path toward democracy, marked recently by the "Orange Revolution," due to rising authoritarian tendencies, marginalized human rights movements, and co-opted civil society.
The term "soft authoritarianism" has replaced "managed democracy" in describing Vladimir Putin's regime. Apart from the campaign against the Yukos oil enterprise and its executives, Putin has been sparing with repression but there have been alarming signs that the regime may be slipping toward harder methods.