Russia's Hollow Men

Russia's Hollow Men

The Kremlin under Putin has locked itself into a triple dynamic of failure, which the Russian people do not deserve. He himself may appear still formidable but is nevertheless the prisoner of his past. Those around him are of little independent account. The state beyond the President’s immediate reach has atrophied. It does not have the inner strength to deal with the debilitating and self-reinforcing corruption at its heart. The state has neither the power nor the executive ability to revive Russia’s economic or societal fortunes. The search for legitimacy in a Russia adrift, by means of establishing the country as a Great Power, is beyond the Kremlin’s reach. Putin bears the ultimate responsibility for these failures. Perhaps he knows it. It is beyond his powers now to change the course he has chosen. An eventual successor will surely have to try to do so, maybe at first in some small degree, whatever his or notionally her understandable fear of what such change may unleash.

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