Sovietology in the era of Putin
or know your oligarchs
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 - a lot went with it. Its western republics: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Armenia followed the lead of democratic movements in eastern and central Europe and became independent of Russia. The Warsaw Pact, which was the Soviet’s counterbalance to NATO, dissolved and the hegemony Russia once had over Eastern and Central Europe disappeared.
Today other than Belarus, Russia has no geopolitical allies in Europe.
And with the downfall of the U.S.S.R. came the loss of Sovietology at the State Department. On a weekly basis, members of Congress would receive various reports (translations and anaysis) of Pravda and Izvestia — the two major newspapers of the Soviet Union. Sovietologists in Foggy Bottom would document who was moving up and who was…well no longer being shown in news photos.
While Vladmir Putin, the ex-KGB agent, may have fond memories are knowing that enemies of the state can be gulaged, he and his oligarchy have moved to assassinations both in Russia and abroad — it’s his go-to reelection strategy.
But if Russia’s oligarchy sees adverse political risk in keeping Putin at the top of the ticket, Vladmir Putin could be deemed replaceable.
And why not? The oligarchs have no limits1 , no shame2, and no hesitation3 about furthering their interests. Just ask Hillary Clinton. Her presidential ambitions were destroyed by the well-financed friends of Vladimir Putin.
And it was largely accidental — no one expected Donald Trump would win. All they wanted was a political weak President Hillary Clinton who couldn’t afford to take on Vladimir Putin. With Trump, Putin et al. bought a U.S. President willing to undermine NATO and act as an apologist for Russian oligarchs and their prince.
The Mueller Report, which was stifled by limiting former Judge and FBI Director Robert Mueller to Russian government officials, told how Putin et al. interfered in the 2016 election and Trump’s First Impeachment further documents the Russian dark money attack on U.S. democracy. And President Biden’s economic sanctions on Putin’s oligarchy cite their machinations in Ukraine amd elsewhere.
The Democrats would do well to do a Wikipedia search of the Russian oligarchy and connect the dots to dark money, the GOP, and Putin praising politicians on the Right (until about 3 weeks ago). If they don’t, the Right will paper over their adulation of power hungry billionaires in Russia unabated.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/new-russia-sanctions-resolve-mystery-mueller-left-unanswered
https://www.justsecurity.org/65863/expert-summaries-of-mueller-report-a-collection-of-short-essays/
https://themoscowproject.org/dispatch/one-year-later-what-we-learned-from-the-mueller-report/index.html