What's Going on in Russia?

Russia’s phenomenon is as follows: its relative power and influence are based not so much on its successes as on the crisis and decline of the ideological and political model that was taken for gospel after the end of the Cold War. Indeed, in the last 12 years, Russia has pursued a calculated and quite successful policy with a moderate number of mistakes. But its relative success is “undeserved” in the sense that it exceeds by far the efforts made to achieve it, be it economic transformation, military development or investment in PR. In part, Russia got lucky because of soaring prices of hydrocarbons. However, a bigger role was played by the general escalation of instability that was only made worse by the actions of global leaders – starting from the United States' irresponsible military campaigns to the adventure with the common European currency that is now threatening to trigger another financial crisis. All these measures were designed to consolidate world order but had the reverse effect.