Russia and Eurasia

October 2005
Russia and the West: A Dangerous Drift
by MICHAEL MCFAUL
"Should Western leaders try to stop this perilous drift of disengagement? Yes. Can they stop it anytime in the foreseeable future? Not likely."

October 2005
Political Graft: The Russian Way
by MARSHALL I. GOLDMAN
"While we normally think of corruption as attempts by government officials to extort money from private sector businessmen, Russia offers increasingly numerous examples in which government officials go further and actually attempt to take over a business for the state or, recently, for themselves."

October 2005
Constrained or Irrelevant: The Media in Putin's Russia
by MASHA LIPMAN
"The problem with today's media in Russia is not just that the Kremlin controls national television, but also that those publications that remain uncontrolled do not make a difference. . . ."

October 2005
Is the Orange Revolution Fading?
by DOMINIQUE AREL
"The Orange Revolution still has the potential to yield a profound regime change in Ukraine, but despite their relative youth and familiarity with Western modes of political conduct, Orange elites have yet to give indication that this change is imminent."

October 2005
The Great Powers in Central Asia
by MARTHA BRILL OLCOTT
"The United States, Russia, and China have spent the past few years jockeying for position in the region. . . . [But] the challenges facing Central Asian states remain largely unchanged, and governments there have received few new tools to address them."

October 2005
Autocrats, Islamists, and the Rise of Radicalism in Central Asia
by ERIC MCGLINCHEY
"Islamist radicalism in Central Asia . . . is in large part a response to authoritarianism. Where governments tolerate some degree of political opposition—either in parliaments or in the press—society's enthusiasm for Islamist goals is limited."

October 2005
From Pipedream to Pipeline: A Caspian Success Story
by Brenda Shaffer
"The goal of winning the pipeline battle was less to gain the moderate volumes of oil and gas in the Caspian than to maintain (in the case of Russia) or attain (in the case of the United States and Iran) significant presence in the region."

March 2005
Less-Than-Great Expectations: The Pakistani-Russian Rapprochement
by Mark N. Katz
"The expansion of Pakistani-Russian ties to include a significant arms relationship appears to depend on a deterioration in the Russian-Indian relationship that Moscow will not initiate and desperately wants to avoid."

October 2004
Reengaging Russia: A New Agenda
by Michael McFaul
"If Russia eventually reverts to a full-blown autocratic regime, it is not inconceivable that tension and competition once again will define Russian-American relations. At this critical moment in Russia's internal development, American foreign policy makers cannot afford to be disengaged."

October 2004
What Does Putin Want?
by Peter Lavelle
"It is not hard to see Putin as an authoritarian. In most ways he is, based on Western standards. But, given Russia's current development trajectory, he probably has to be. . . . Either the Kremlin continues its very hard-handed approach to restructuring the economy or Russia risks becoming in effect a Burkina Faso with nuclear weapons."

October 2004
The Yukos Affair
by Marshall I. Goldman
"The story of Yukos Oil, [its chairman Mikhail] Khodorkovsky's rise from obscurity, and the government's prosecution of him is also a parable about Russia's struggle to adapt to a market economy and the all but inevitable backlash from doing it badly."

October 2004
Siberia: Russia's Economic Heartland and Daunting Dilemma
by Fiona Hill
"Russian oil is predominantly in Siberia, and ultimately Siberia is where Russia's wealth is. And just like the energy sector, how Siberia itself is developed remains critical" to the future growth of the Russian economy.

October 2004
Chechnya Ten Years Later
by Nabi Abdullaev
"The Chechen conflict is not so much about who will govern Chechnya. It is about whether Chechnya will be governed at all."

October 2004
Exploiting Rivalries: Putin's Foreign Policy
by Mark N. Katz
"Russian foreign policy-makers seem convinced that playing both sides against the middle with other nations is a clever way to advance Moscow's interests. It may take many more foreign policy setbacks before they are persuaded otherwise."

October 2004
Georgia's Rose Revolution
by Lincoln Mitchell
"The Rose Revolution represented a victory not only for the Georgian people but for democracy globally. [It] . . . demonstrated that, by aggressively contesting elections, exercising basic freedoms of speech and assembly, and applying smart strategic thinking, a democratic opposition can defeat a weak semi-democratic kleptocracy."

October 2003
US-Russian Relations: Between Realism and Reality
by Celeste A. Wallander
"If only realism could prevail, one is tempted to hope, the United States and Russia could work together to meet their common interests in security, stability, and prosperity. Reality, however, just keeps getting in the way."

October 2003
Chechnya's Russia Problem
by Matthew Evangelista
"As long as President Putin insists on framing the war in Chechnya as a struggle with international terrorism . . . and as long as the West tacitly acquiesces to his approach, there may be no end to the bloodshed."

October 2003
Render Unto Caesar: Putin and the Oligarchs
by Marshall I. Goldman
"Because of the flawed manner in which the privatization process was carried out, the new owners will always lack the legitimacy necessary for a stable political climate and sustained economic investment and growth. Having constructed a faulty foundation, the builders must live with the possibility that their edifice of privatization will periodically shift and crack and may even collapse."

October 2003
Out of Communism: Reforming the Russian Legal System
by Mark Kramer
"Russia has made considerable progress toward a democratic system, but the new legal rights Russian citizens have acquired will remain precarious until a true liberal democracy is firmly in place."

October 2003
The Middle Easternization of Central Asia
by Pauline Jones Luong
"The United States will only exacerbate the threat of terrorism in Central Asia if it continues to encourage the region's leaders to combat radical Islamic groups with greater militancy rather than with increased economic opportunities and something other than rhetorical respect for human rights."