Following a period of “post-Soviet” turmoil and economic crisis, Russia is going through a process of stablisation and reconstruction. Though he rose to power with the support of some of the most notorious profiteers of the Yelstin era, President Putin has managed to restore the clout and prestige of the state at home and abroad while bringing the buccaneering oligarchs under control. He is applying a distinctly nationalistic form of “free market authoritarianism”, reminiscent of Bonapartism while rebuilding the Russian empire in a new more sustainable form, as an indispensable balancing power between Asia, Europe and North America.
