Russia-Lost in Transition by Lilia Shevtsova

Russia-Lost in Transition by Lilia Shevtsova

Russian history is first and foremost a history of personalized power. As Russia startles the international community with its assertiveness and faces both parliamentary and presidential elections, Lilia Shevtsova searches the histories of the Yeltsin and Putin regimes. She explores within them conventional truths and myths about Russia, paradoxes of Russian political development, and Russia's role in the world. Russia--Lost in Transition discovers a logic of government in Russia--a political regime and the type of capitalism that were formulated during the Yeltsin and Putin presidencies and will continue to dominate Russia's trajectory in the near term. Looking forward as well as back, Shevtsova speculates about the upcoming elections as well as the self-perpetuating system in place--the legacies of Yeltsin and Putin--and how it will dictate the immediate political future. She also explores several scenarios for Russia's future over the next decade.

Lilia Shevtsova is a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center, where she chairs the Russian Domestic Politics and Political Institutions Program. She is also an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). Shevtsova is the author of Yeltsin's Russia: Myths and Reality; Putin's Russia; Russia: Lost in Transition; and Lonely Power, all from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Andrew Wood is an associate fellow at Chatham House and a consultant to a number of companies with an interest in Russia. He was the British ambassador to Russia from 1995 to 2000.