Carnegie Moscow Center
Following the annexation of Crimea in March 2014, the Russian public has embraced an increasingly conservative and nationalistic ideology.
After the end of the political protests of 2011–2012, Russia has found itself in a troubled break between two eras. This is a time of conservatism, which, in its Russian incarnation, has morphed into a gloomy, almost medieval archaism.
Today, the two predominant political and social models—authoritarianism and liberal democracy—are experiencing simultaneous crises.
Russia has finally reached the point when its very form of existence through the personalized power system and its attempts to justify itself by ideological and territorial expansion—the Russian Matrix—is under question.
Russian society is waking up and pushing back against Putin’s brand of authoritarianism, with the potential to bring about a transformation of the system into one based on the rule of law.
The idea of authoritarian modernization, or state capitalism, has become fashionable in the wake of the global financial crisis, but the examples of China and Russia demonstrate that it is ultimately a self-serving illusion.
Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West has yet to adjust to the post-Soviet reality and Russia has not settled on its relationship with the rest of the world.
Enormous societal and political shifts 20 years ago opened prospects for a new, united Europe. Despite Russia’s role in this peaceful departure from totalitarianism, the country’s course in the subsequent two decades was not so straightforward. While the demolition of the Berlin Wall is no guarantee of success, democratic transformations are a necessary precondition.
While the "reset" in U.S.–Russian relations has come with closer cooperation on arms control, Afghanistan, and Iran, as long as Russia's system of personalized power rests on anti-Western principles, a true reset is unattainable.
The Carnegie Moscow Center works to facilitate Andrew Carnegie’s belief that the world could be made a better place through the spread of knowledge and international cooperation. This year, the Center celebrates its 15th anniversary.