Carnegie's Martha Brill Olcott spoke with host Bob Moon about Vladimir Putin's legacy, the Russian economy, and the course Putin's successor Dmitry Medvedev might take.
A panel of Carnegie Russia experts present analysis of the current state of Russia's political and economic development and the likelihood of continuity or change in Dmitry Medvedev's first term as president of Russia.
Many believe that when Chinese and Russian leaders stopped believing in communism they became pragmatists. But Chinese and Russian rulers do have a set of beliefs that guide their domestic and foreign policies. They believe in the virtues of strong central government and disdain the weaknesses of the democratic system. Chinese and Russian leaders are not just autocrats. They believe in autocracy.
During the Stalin years there was the notion of intensifying class struggle. Now we are observing an intensifying clan struggle as part of the Kremlin's policy of managed democracy, which, it would seem, has become quite overmanaged. This policy is particularly evident with governors, who have essentially become federal bureaucrats after President Vladimir Putin began appointing them.
The Carnegie Endowment is proud to announce its third annual Carnegie Junior Fellows Conference, the premier event for young professionals in the field of foreign policy: "A New Authoritarian Moment? Emerging Alternatives to Liberal Democracy," April 29, 2008.
Last summer, as Americans focused on the surge in Iraq, most ignored a military exercise with a potentially more far-reaching impact. In a remote location in the Ural Mountains, Russia, China, and several Central Asian nations gathered for a massive war game, ironically dubbed "Peace Mission 2007."
This is a first for Russia: We have a president-elect even while his predecessor continues to discharge his duties. Also new: President Vladimir Putin, unlike predecessor Boris Yeltsin, has no plans to fade into political obscurity.
On my way out of Moscow on the day when George Bush and Vladimir Putin met for the last time in Sochi, Russian blogs were alight with complaints about how Putin had lost big at the NATO summit meeting in Bucharest the day before. As I flew across the ocean a few hours later, I sat next to a well-placed Washington operative on his way back from Bucharest. "Bush lost big at the summit," he said."
The aftermath of recent financial crises, such as the U.S. housing slump and near-collapse of Bear Sterns, underscores the concentration of power among a select, insular group of global elites, unchecked by any international mechanism. An often unregulated “superclass” of 6,000 individuals governs not only business and finance, but politics, the arts, the non-profit world, and other sectors.
NATO's decision not to offer Georgia an immediate path to membership appears at first glance to be a blow to Washington. Although the NATO secretary-general announced that Ukraine and Georgia would eventually become members, Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, confidently predicted that nothing would change anytime soon.

























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