The Spectre of Putinism

The Soviet Union ended on 31 December 1991 and was replaced by the Russian Federation. This raised hopes of a Russia with a market economy and a political democracy where citizens would have equal rights and responsibilities under the constitutional rule of law rather than government by state bureaucracy and a kleptocracy of economic oligarchs. Thirty-two years later Russia is still mired in an authoritarian swamp, aggravated by imperialist aggression against its neighbours, in particular Ukraine. This has happened not by accident but through the hubristic design of Vladimir V. Putin, former KGB officer, political fixer, and since 1999 effectively in control of the Russian Federation.