Medvedev Versus Putin
An intriguing article has just been published in Foreign Policy by Leon Aron. Its provocative title is "Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union is Wrong". Its thesis is two fold.
Firstly, the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union was an emergence of a strong consensus amongst the governing classes and the educated that the Soviet Union was ethically wrong. Without this, it would never have collapsed: the Evil Empire would have rumbled on.
Secondly, a similar conviction is emerging now in Russia, that Russia itself has to change and de-Putinize. Watch this space.
We shall see. We fear that the theses are grounded upon the canard that underneath the skin of every human being lies the soul of a liberal Western democrat just itching to burst forth. Its the same world-view that is leading the Commentariate to get all excited about the "Arab Spring".
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