Russia on the Eve of Elections: Continuity or Change?
Leon Aron, Christopher DeMuth, John R. Bolton
September 18, 2007
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With the upcoming Duma elections this December and the presidential contest in March 2008, the Kremlin appears to be both confident and worried. President Vladimir Putin continues to enjoy high approval ratings and faces no genuine political rivals, yet authoritarian tendencies have risen sharply. Political groups failing to adhere to the party line continue to be harassed, marginalized, and prevented from political registration.

Although Russia currently enjoys stable economic growth and increasing foreign investment, Western-owned companies in the energy sector face stern pressure from the Kremlin to relinquish their assets to state-owned companies. In foreign policy, though the Kremlin claims the role of peacemaker in both Iran and Palestine, Russia continues to utilize energy supplies as a tool of diplomatic pressure against its former republics. It has threatened to target Europe in protest of missile defense installations in Eastern Europe, blocked the resolution of Kosovo’s independence bid, and repeatedly shielded a nuclear bomb-bound Iran.

Can the Russian opposition mount a successful challenge to the Kremlin during the Duma and presidential elections? Will Putin’s model of “sovereign democracy”--the centralization of political and economic powers--retain broad popular support? Will it prove compatible with economic growth or will it begin to impede it? Is a new Cold War inevitable between Russia and the West? On September 18, 2007 AEI will host leading scholars and policymakers from the United States and Russia to discuss these and other questions. Topics will include Russia’s domestic policy, economic prospects, and foreign affairs.

About the Author

 

Leon
Aron

  • Leon Aron is Resident Scholar and Director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of three books and over 300 articles and essays. Since 1999, he has written Russian Outlook, a quarterly essay on economic, political, social and cultural aspects of Russia’s post-Soviet transition, published by the Institute. He is the author of the first full-scale scholarly biography of Boris Yeltsin, Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life (St. Martin’s Press, 2000); and Russia’s Revolution: Essays 1989-2006 (AEI Press,2007); Roads to the Temple: Memory, Truth, Ideals and Ideas in the Making ofthe Russian Revolution, 1987-1991 (Yale University Press, Spring 2012).


    Dr. Aron earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University, has taught a graduate seminar at Georgetown University, and was awarded the Peace Fellowship at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has co-edited and contributed the opening chapter to The Emergence of Russian Foreign Policy, published by the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1994 and contributed an opening chapter to The New Russian Foreign Policy (Council on Foreign Relations, 1998).


    Dr. Aron has contributed numerous essays and articles to newspapers andmagazines, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, theWall Street Journal,   Foreign Policy, The NewRepublic, Weekly Standard, Commentary, New York Times Book Review, the TimesLiterary Supplement. A frequent guest of television and radio talkshows, he has commented on Russian affairs for, among others, 60 Minutes,The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose, CNN International,C-Span, and National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Talk of theNation.”


    From 1990 to 2004, he was a permanent discussant at the Voice of America’s radio and television show Gliadya iz Ameriki (“Looking from America”), which was broadcast to Russia every week.

  • Phone: 202-862-5898
    Email: laron@aei.org

  • Assistant Info

    Name: Daniel Vajdic
    Phone: 202-862-5942
    Email: daniel.vajdic@aei.org
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Christopher
DeMuth
  • Christopher DeMuth was president of AEI from December 1986 through December 2008. Previously, he was administrator for information and regulatory affairs in the Office of Management and Budget and executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief in the Reagan administration; taught economics, law, and regulatory policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; practiced regulatory, antitrust, and general corporate law; and worked on urban and environmental policy in the Nixon White House.

     

  • Phone: 2028625895
    Email: cdemuth@aei.org

  • Assistant Info

    Name: Keriann Hopkins
    Phone: 2028625897
    Email: keriann.hopkins@aei.org
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John R.
Bolton
  • John R. Bolton, a diplomat and a lawyer, has spent many years in public service. From August 2005 to December 2006, he served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations. From 2001 to 2005, he was under secretary of state for arms control and international security. At AEI, Ambassador Bolton's area of research is U.S. foreign and national security policy.

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  • Phone: 202-862-5892
    Email: christine.samuelian@aei.org

  • Assistant Info

    Name: Christine Samuelian
    Phone: 202-862-5892
    Email: christine.samuelian@aei.org
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