Ruminations on Russia

Anaotle Lieven writes a very very good op ed piece in today's FT urging the west to be a little more rationale in its assessment of VVP; Do not condemn Putin out of hand. (Subscription Only) Maybe the single best piece on Russia I have read for a while. Even Konstantin might approve!!

I pay for my subscription and whilst I don't feel that you should the FT has made a point of replacing print revenue with a great business portal so will not block copy and paste. A couple of quotations to give you a feel;

Unfortunately, this hostility can take on an irrational and hysterical tone absent from western attitudes to China, for example.

The new Russian elite of Mr Putin’s conception is supposed to be dynamic and capable of competing in the free market, but also to be deeply patriotic: it should be committed to the interests of the state and deferential to the wishes of the state, especially in foreign affairs....Its members will never lobby for foreign support against their own government.

But for every historical case where such attempts have worked, there have been two or three where this approach only leads to a new form of economically retrograde kleptocracy, in which the state elites, far from developing the economy, wreck it through a mixture of incompetence and looting.