
Veteran historian Walter Laqueur dismantles Western misconceptions about Putin's Russia, revealing it's not a Cold War revival but something uniquely dangerous. How might understanding Russia's Orthodox roots and "manifest destiny" ideology prevent the next global conflict?
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What happens when a secret police officer becomes president of the world's largest country? On the final day of 1999, a little-known KGB operative named Vladimir Putin inherited the ruins of a superpower. Russia had spent the previous decade careening from communist dictatorship to chaotic democracy, from global rival to economic basket case. Few predicted this obscure bureaucrat would transform his country into a nationalist autocracy that would challenge the entire Western order. Yet Putin's rise wasn't an accident-it was the culmination of centuries of Russian history colliding with modern geopolitics. Understanding this collision isn't just academic curiosity. It's essential for anyone navigating our increasingly fractured world, where a resurgent Russia tests the boundaries of international norms while the West struggles to respond coherently.
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