What Russia needed was economic transformation, and for that it needed not less but more interaction with the world economy, and above all with its technological leaders. And this had wider implications. After the shocking confrontation with the West in August 2008, Moscow needed to change course. With the crushing of Georgia, the Kremlin had made its point. In the future, Medvedev asserted, the success or failure of Russian foreign policy should be judged by a single criterion: “whether it contributes to improving living standards in our country.”
