Quote Originally Posted by AmericanPride View Post
Slap,

In your quote of her article, "potential" is the operative word. Unfortunately, Applebaum washes over entirely the chaos that constituted the Yeltsin period and set the conditions for the "revanchist, revisionist, disruptive" policies of the Putin administration. And, the question should be asked, from where do such policies and ideologies originate? It's easy to disregard the continuity of history but Russia since the 17th century has regarded itself as a 'great power', and when there's a deficit between a state's perceived status and ascribed statuis, it provides incentives for risk-taking policies. Applebaum acknowledges that the same kind of people in power during the Soviet era returned to power in a weakened Russia, but somehow concludes that these elites did not feel humiliation from the loss of superpower status?
AP,
I didn't post this davidbfpo did. Later Slap