Russia Resurgent

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Russia Resurgent
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Russia Resurgent

• Should we again fear the Russian bear?
• bare?
• Russias return to not free

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The Russian Style of Democracy

1. The State of Russian Democracy - Bad News/Good
   News
2. A Russian Democracy Russian Political Culture
3. Brief Overview of Russian/Soviet History
4. The Demise of the USSR The Power of Ideas
5. Why Do We Care Implications
6. Shameless Book Plug

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• The Bad News
• The Appointment of Regional Governors
• The Yukos Prosecution
• Interference in Ukraines Election
• Increased Media Control
• Abuses in Chechnya the Military
• Georgia incursion
• Putins return in purported fraudulent election

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• The Good News
• Public Opinion on Putin
• The Recent Protests
• Response to the Kursk Tragedy
• Ukraines Orange Revolution
• Cooperation on GWOT
• Putins Apparent Willingness to Step Aside, (sort
  of) for Medvedev, but come back.

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The Russian Style of Democracy
Last year in four Russian cities thousands took
to the streets to protest cuts in
pensions. Hundreds blocked key highways in
Northern Ossestia to protest government handling
of the Beslan tragedy.
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The Russian Style of Democracy
Russian Governments Response to the 2000 Sinking
of the Submarine Kursk Soviet Response to the
Previous 24 Cold War Accidents
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The Russian Style of Democracy

• Elements of Russian Political Culture
• Paranoia of Invasion
• Inferiority/Superiority Complex
• Relative Value of Human Life/Value of numbers
• Stoic Acceptance of Authority Hardship
• Alcohol

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• The Impact of Russian History
• 9th Century Kievan Rus
• Genghis Khan Mongol Rule
• Czarist Expansion
• Ivan the Terrible, 16th Century
• Peter the Great, 17th Century
• Catherine the Great, 18th Century
• Napoleans Invasion

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• Revolution
• The Russo-Japanese War 1904
• The Failed Revolutions of 1905
• Creation of the First Duma
• WWI the Abdication of Nicolas II
• The Kerensky Government
• The October Revolution

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• Stalinization
• NEP
• Consolidation/Elimination of Trotsky
• Forced Collectivization
• Five-Year Plans
• Molotov-Ribbontrop 1939
• The Great Patriotic War

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• Khrushchevs Thaw
• De-Stalinization and the Secret Speech
• We will bury you
• Virgin Lands Program
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Peaceful Coexistance
• The Thaw
• Brezhnevs Stagnation

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• The Demise of the USSR The Power of Ideas
• Gorbachev and his Generation
• Glasnost, Perestroika and New Thinking
• The Reagan Revolution
• The War in Afghanistan
• Chernobyl
• The August 1991 Coup

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• Yeltsins Kleptocracy
• Yeltsin on the tank saves democracy
• Potemkin Democracy
• Privatization and the New Oligarchs
• Forgiveness of debt

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• Yeltsins Kleptocracy
• Attack on the White House 1993
• The Ruble crisis of 1998
• The First Chechan War 1996

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• Putins Arrival
• The Second Chechan War 99
• NATO expansion (Particularly Georgia Ukraine)
• Bombing of Serbia
• 9/11
• Bush Administration
• Overpowered the Oligarchs
• Russian sense of betrayal

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The Russian Style of Democracy
August 2008 Georgia Who invaded whom?

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The Russian Style of Democracy

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• Obamas Arrival
• Hillary resets the relationship Peregruzka
  (reset)/Perazagruzka (overcharge)
• Georgia/Ukraine in NATO
• Sanctions on Irans nuclear ambitions
• Veto of condemnation of Syria

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The Russian Style of Democracy

• Implications for the West and What the U.S.
  Should Do
• Russian Paranoia
• Russian Superiority/Inferiority
• Russian Respect for Authority
• Russian Value on Human Life

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Russia Resurgent
Recognize this tourist in Red Square? (1988)
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Is the American guy better?
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Russia Resurgent
Questions?