This is a legacy website featuring a collection of work by the Carnegie Endowment’s global network of scholars on topics including Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, and the post-Soviet states. This site is a product of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Washington, D.C. For more recent work by Carnegie scholars in this field, please visit Carnegie Politika.
Told in eight parts, Eight Pieces of Empire follows the USSR’s disintegration and its aftermath through two decades of the author’s own reporting from the region.
Russians should not expect modernization to be initiated from the top. Nor can a modern economy develop in Russia without reforming its political institutions, such as elections, the courts, and the law enforcement agencies.
Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West has yet to adjust to the post-Soviet reality and Russia has not settled on its relationship with the rest of the world.
Russia is no longer an empire, but it is not yet a nation-state either. To be seen as a great power in the twenty-first century, it has to reform its institutions and economy and become a great country.
While Russia is still an important global strategic player, thanks to its oil and gas reserves and nuclear arsenal, it lacks the will and the resources to enact a return to the Russian empire.
Mikhail Gorbachev reflects on the fall of the Soviet Union, U.S. actions in the last twenty years, and Putin and Medvedev’s roles in Russia today.
Corruption remains a serious hindrance to increased trade and investment between the United States and Russia, and the two countries must work together to build strong institutions, develop better business practices, and enforce compliance.
If Putin is re-elected president, he is likely to seek to maintain continuity and stability in a time of economic uncertainty and his return will not significantly alter Russian domestic politics or the U.S.-Russia reset.
Twenty years after the end of the Soviet Union, Moscow should drop the notion of creating an exclusive power center in the post-Soviet space.
Putin’s return to the Russian presidency will not undo the U.S.-Russia reset, but it will change the dynamics of the relationship between Moscow and Washington.