Tesco
What Putin Learned From the Soviet Collapse
Article

What Putin Learned From the Soviet Collapse

To Preserve Its Global Ambitions, Russia Is Managing Its Economic Limits

Richard Connolly and Michael Kofman
Foreign Affairs, 2021
Read the article

Read or listen offline

  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Background
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Today’s Russia has come a long way from the Soviet Union’s hallmark inefficient economy and crippled state apparatus. In this thought-provoking essay, foreign policy experts Richard Connolly and Michael Kofman highlight the lessons in the USSR’s political and fiscal missteps that currently inform Russia’s economic management and global relationships. Students of geopolitical power shifts will find this concise text a worthwhile read.

Take-Aways

  • The Soviet Union endured severe economic disruptions and critical shortages of necessities, which rendered it geopolitically weak.
  • Drawing on past policy blunders, Russia is now better able to weather political and socioeconomic challenges.
  • Several macroeconomic issues continue to weigh on Russia’s global status.

About the Authors

Richard Connolly is director of the Eastern Advisory Group and an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. Michael Kofman is research program director of the Russia Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analyses and an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Comment on this summary or Diskussion beginnen