I'm pretty sure I've linked to it before, but Perry Anderson's LRB essay from early last year on Russia under Putin remains the best long-form analysis of the subject I've encountered recently - allowing, of course, for Anderson's own Marxist idiosyncracies. Anderson emphasizes Putin's undeniable talents as a practitioner of machtpolitik, both at home and abroad, but he insists on Russia's overall weakness as a world power as well, and both emphases seem worth pondering during this week of Russian aggression, and Western uncertainty about how best to respond.
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