• Research
  • Emissary
  • About
  • Experts
Carnegie Global logoCarnegie lettermark logo
DemocracyIran
  • Donate
{
  "authors": [
    "Anders Aslund"
  ],
  "type": "other",
  "centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
  "centers": [
    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
  ],
  "collections": [],
  "englishNewsletterAll": "ctw",
  "nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
  "primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
  "programAffiliation": "russia",
  "programs": [
    "Russia and Eurasia"
  ],
  "projects": [],
  "regions": [
    "North America",
    "United States",
    "Caucasus",
    "Russia"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Political Reform",
    "Democracy",
    "Foreign Policy"
  ]
}
REQUIRED IMAGE

REQUIRED IMAGE

Other

Putin's Decline and America's Response

Link Copied
By Anders Aslund
Published on Aug 1, 2005
Program mobile hero image

Program

Russia and Eurasia

The Russia and Eurasia Program continues Carnegie’s long tradition of independent research on major political, societal, and security trends in and U.S. policy toward a region that has been upended by Russia’s war against Ukraine.  Leaders regularly turn to our work for clear-eyed, relevant analyses on the region to inform their policy decisions.

Learn More

Source: Carnegie Endowment

Russia’s regime has gone through a major aggravation during the first year of President Vladimir Putin’s second term. The regime suffers from serious overcentralization of power, which has led to a paralysis of policy making. Putin’s power base has been shrunk to a core of secret policemen from St. Petersburg. Although his popularity remains high, it is falling. Neither unbiased information nor negative feedback is accepted. As a result, the Putin regime is much more fragile than generally understood. Russia’s current abandonment of democracy is an anomaly for such a developed and relatively wealthy country, and it has made Russia’s interests part from those of the United States.

In this new Policy Brief, Carnegie senior associate Anders Aslund asserts that the United States should not hesitate to promote democracy in Russia, while pragmatically pursuing common interests in nonproliferation and energy.

Click on the link above for the full text of this Carnegie publication.

A limited number of print copies are available.
Request a copy

About the Author
Anders Åslund is the director of the Russian and Eurasian Program and senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment.  He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and co-directs the Carnegie Moscow Center's project on Economies of the Post-Soviet States. He is the author of Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc and Betraying a Revolution (Washington Post, May 2005).

About the Author

Anders Aslund

Former Senior Associate, Director, Russian and Eurasian Program

    Recent Work

  • Testimony
    Democracy in Retreat in Russia

      Anders Aslund

  • Report
    Blue Ribbon Commission Proposes “New Wave” of Reforms for Ukraine

      Anders Aslund, Oleksandr Paskhaver

Anders Aslund
Former Senior Associate, Director, Russian and Eurasian Program
Anders Aslund
Political ReformDemocracyForeign PolicyNorth AmericaUnited StatesCaucasusRussia

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

More Work from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

  • Commentary
    Carnegie Politika
    Russia’s Best-Placed Political Émigrés Are Those With Nothing to Lose

    While the Nazis rushed ahead in a revolutionary fervor, Russia’s modern crusaders against enemies of the state work methodically, giving their targets time to adjust to restrictions before closing the loopholes.

      Leonid Bershidsky

  • people watching a huge column of smoke in the distance
    Commentary
    Emissary
    Is the Russia-Ukraine War Vibe Shift Real?

    Media coverage suggests Kyiv’s fortunes have changed. That shift may be important, but it only goes so far.

      Dara Massicot, Aaron David Miller, Andrew S. Weiss

  • Lee and Lula walking
    Commentary
    Emissary
    Why Korea’s President Skipped Washington for Silicon Valley and Brasília

    Lee’s tour shows how Seoul is reorganizing its diplomacy away from Pyongyang and toward industrial networks and the geography of the compute economy.

      Darcie Draudt-Véjares

  • An AS3 interceptor part of the Merops, an AI-powered anti-drone system is pictured during a NATO live-fire demonstration of a counter-UAS system on November 18, 2025 in Nowa Deba, Poland.
    Paper
    Confronting the Barriers to AI Diffusion in the U.S. Military

    The Pentagon is calling for a rapid AI transformation. Autonomous drones offer a case study in the eight bottlenecks the U.S. military must navigate to realize that vision.

      Jake Steckler

  • People standing on rocks in the ocean near the shore, with soldiers in the foreground
    Commentary
    Emissary
    The Migration Wave That Embarrassed Morocco and Rattled Europe

    Most migrants may have left Ceuta, but the effects may linger.

      • Alejandro Rodriguez
      • Sarah Yerkes

      Alejandro Martin Rodriguez, Sarah Yerkes

Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie global logo, stacked
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NWWashington, DC, 20036-2103Phone: 202 483 7600
  • Research
  • Emissary
  • About
  • Experts
  • Donate
  • Programs
  • Events
  • Blogs
  • Podcasts
  • Contact
  • Annual Reports
  • Careers
  • Privacy
  • For Media
  • Government Resources
Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
© 2026 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. All rights reserved.