Russia's Futures

by Richard Sakwa

Russia is back as a major force in global politics, but what does this mean? Is Russia the dangerous revisionist foe that meddles in Western elections and tries to subvert the liberal international order? Or is it a country precariously trying to maintain security and enhance prosperity at home, while re-asserting its place as a great power in the world today? In this book, renowned Russia scholar Richard Sakwa explores current debates on Russia, placing them in historical context and outlining the fundamental challenges currently facing the country. Post-communist Russia had to grapple with a unique set of problems, including reconstituting the political system, rebuilding the economy, re-imagining the nation, and rethinking Russia’s place in the world. The solutions are still being sought, but this hard-hitting study argues that the failure to create an international system in which Russia’s transformation became part of a revised world order has made the search far more difficult than it may otherwise have been. Although Russia is one of the oldest states in Europe, in its contemporary guise it is one of the youngest. Russia has had many pasts and, given its size, centrality and complexity, it will also have many futures.

Genres: Nonfiction, Russia

256 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2019

About the author

Richard Sakwa (born 1953) is Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent. He writes books about Russian and Eastern European communist and post-communist politics.

Sakwa is currently Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent. From 2001 to 2007 he was also the head of the University's Politics and International Relations department. He has published on Soviet, Russian and post-communist affairs, and has written and edited several books and articles on the subject.

Sakwa was also a participant of Valdai Discussion Club, an Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a member of the Advisory Boards of the Institute of Law and Public Policy in Moscow and a member of Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences.

Reviews

[Thomas Ray]

Library-of-Congress DK510.76 .S255 2019 Memorial Library

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazone

USEFUL AND ENLIGHTENING

Sakwa (prof, Russian history and European politics) has produced a useful summary of the current state and future prospects of Russia under Putin.

It is free of assuming that Putin is either the Devil incarnate or anything like a Western-style political savior. Rather, he places him in the context of Russian history and geopolitics and explains how he must maneuver among the conflicting factions in his country, from old style aparatchiks to neo-conservatives to old-style Russia for Russia isolationists to Eurasianists, whose roots in Russian history extend as far back as the roots of those wanting to pull Russia back from any involvement with the West at all.

The Putin who emerges from this picture, and the state he rules, are conservative defenders of both international norms and the status quo, not mad interlopers looking to upset the global (or American) applecart.

The difference is that they are Russian and aware of their history and of the achievements they’ve already made as they attempt to move forward.

What they do not want is for Russia to be an American satellite and the tension ratcheting up between the two power blocs is one of the worrisome signs Sakwa sees for the country.

Sakwa assesses the chance that Putin’s internal compromises to maintain peace and order in his country will continue after his departure or demise.

It’s a crap shoot which could go either way. Reading a book like this goes some way to prepare us for the future, whatever may happen, and helps dispel convenient but misleading myths about both the country and its ruler.

David Keymer