AI-powered
podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
The Role of the West in the 1990s
The West cannot, will not, and did not shape Russia's future. That was in the hands of the Russians then, as it will be in the future. I am very critical of Western policy towards Russia in the 1990s. We encouraged a whole variety of what turned out to be deeply retrograde moves. The crash privatizations moved huge amounts of public goods into private hands for copics on the ruble. But we thought that was okay. After all, we'd won the Cold War. Hey, everything was great. Now, with glorious 2020 hindsight, nonetheless, it is clear just how far we let ourselves down.