Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
As one of the BRICS founders, Brazil’s new president will oppose pitting the BRICS against the West.
What makes the situation so hazardous is President Vladimir Putin’s mercurial and impulsive decision making. From the start, the war in Ukraine has provided numerous examples of Putin’s emotional overreactions to events, and of his miscalculations.
Other examples suggest we should be cautious: being defeated in Kuwait in 1991 did not bring down Saddam Hussein, and Slobodan Milosevic’s nationalist regime survived the routing of Serb forces in Croatia and Bosnia. However, even if large-scale failures in Ukraine do not bring down Putin, they may change the face of his regime.
President Biden is about to depart on a trip with an ambitious itinerary: meetings on climate at the COP27, on relations with Southeast Asia at the U.S.-ASEAN summit, and on a range of political and economic issues at the G20. With so many high priority topics to cover, what’s realistic to expect?
This graphic novel biography chronicles Vladimir Putin’s rise from a mid-level KGB officer to the autocratic leader of Russia and reveals the truth behind the strongman persona he has spent his career cultivating.
The most important thing that Putin experienced in East Germany was the spontaneous unraveling of the German Democratic Republic.
Now, in 2022, Russia has turned into a full-fledged, personal autocracy.
Having declined to join Western sanctions against Russia, Turkey has become the only remaining window to Europe for Russian companies and individuals.
It’s difficult to discern any real growth in the influence of the hardliners. They are trying to push Putin down a narrow corridor of escalation, but there are no signs that the president is actually listening to them.
The excerpt selected below seeks to explain the events that shaped how Putin views grassroots political protests: as a major threat to the survival of his regime and himself.