Thank you for this excellent, if disturbing, piece. I have never seen modern Russia's political history and economy explained so clearly, concisely and cleverly. To think how close we came to...I can't go there.
You mention the rise of oil prices in the 2000's. My conspiratorial mind has always wondered if Cheney was the first Republican to start to deal with Putin - and so he arranged for the invasion of Iraq, which precipitated the oil price rise.
Invading Iraq never made sense for American policy - it greatly strengthened Iran (which is a vassal state of Russia).
This article is a “print me out now,” article. So helpful. When American reporter David Satter (thrown out of Russia) mentioned that hope on a Russian bread line was a woman yelling out while everyone else was complaining.... “but the world is afraid of us!” my American assumption that surely countries has more in common than people thought...was dashed. Russia is huge. Massive. This article makes me think it’s admirable to Russian people that Putin has managed to rule this monster land mass? He’s got a handle on it? And if it took corruption, well then it took corruption? Satter also stressed American democracy rests on law but Russian “democracy” they envisioned forgot about that and went for the mob crime as a support structure. Reading about the oil, vodka and “ water of whatever quality the government deigns to sell them” (ugh) ....I’m actually reading the Brothers Karamasov because someone said, “if you want to understand Russian character, it’s the book to read.” Considering our brain stem, how the hell have we lasted this long all together on the planet? ..... Really, we need to understand how different we all are.... the mentality. That’s something my holocaust surviving mother-in-law used to talk about, “The Polish mentality,”. “The Russian mentality,”. “The Ukrainian etc. etc.”. JFC...I hope we get this right.....for our kids.
Thank you for this excellent, if disturbing, piece. I have never seen modern Russia's political history and economy explained so clearly, concisely and cleverly. To think how close we came to...I can't go there.
You mention the rise of oil prices in the 2000's. My conspiratorial mind has always wondered if Cheney was the first Republican to start to deal with Putin - and so he arranged for the invasion of Iraq, which precipitated the oil price rise.
Invading Iraq never made sense for American policy - it greatly strengthened Iran (which is a vassal state of Russia).
I doubt Vlad forgot his Deutsche
Excellent writing, but very depressing, of course.
My stomach churns every time I read anything about Russia under Putin.
This article is a “print me out now,” article. So helpful. When American reporter David Satter (thrown out of Russia) mentioned that hope on a Russian bread line was a woman yelling out while everyone else was complaining.... “but the world is afraid of us!” my American assumption that surely countries has more in common than people thought...was dashed. Russia is huge. Massive. This article makes me think it’s admirable to Russian people that Putin has managed to rule this monster land mass? He’s got a handle on it? And if it took corruption, well then it took corruption? Satter also stressed American democracy rests on law but Russian “democracy” they envisioned forgot about that and went for the mob crime as a support structure. Reading about the oil, vodka and “ water of whatever quality the government deigns to sell them” (ugh) ....I’m actually reading the Brothers Karamasov because someone said, “if you want to understand Russian character, it’s the book to read.” Considering our brain stem, how the hell have we lasted this long all together on the planet? ..... Really, we need to understand how different we all are.... the mentality. That’s something my holocaust surviving mother-in-law used to talk about, “The Polish mentality,”. “The Russian mentality,”. “The Ukrainian etc. etc.”. JFC...I hope we get this right.....for our kids.