CRITICAL THINKING (MAX 550 WORDS)
In the article “Who Lost Russia (this time)?” by Kathryn Stoner and Michael McFaul, the authors want to argue the reasons why Russia turned out to be the country which we know today as powerful and autocratic.
The authors go back to what happened to Russia in the 1990s. The decline of the economic growth brought the Russians to point their fingers at the West and more specifically at the United States for their acting. During those years people raised two opposite arguments about the West: one saying that it did too much and the other that is did too little, more likely referred to as the “too much” camp or school and the “too little” camp. (pg.167).
On the one hand, the “Too Much School” (pg.169) states that the West tried too hard to impose its own rules and ideas on the Russian country, such as democracy and privatization which Russia did not want. On the other hand, the “Too Weak School” (pg. …show more content…
The authors use the “Reset” as a support for their argument. The reset is a simple reason why the West and the United States were not at fault yesterday nor today. In fact, the “Reset” was meant to be a cooperation between the Russian Government and United States Government. It started in 2009 as an idea of President B. Obama and in the following years, the cooperation brought many social, political and economic profits to both parties. However, it lasted until 2012 when it ended mostly because of Russian corruption in politics. Therefore the West has no responsibility for Putin’s acting in 2014 (pg.172-173). Putin, instead during the years of cooperation learned more about the United States flaws and weaknesses and that is probably why he went on with the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Ukraine, because he knew that the opposition would have not reacted to
In the article “Who Lost Russia (this time)?” by Kathryn Stoner and Michael McFaul, the authors want to argue the reasons why Russia turned out to be the country which we know today as powerful and autocratic.
The authors go back to what happened to Russia in the 1990s. The decline of the economic growth brought the Russians to point their fingers at the West and more specifically at the United States for their acting. During those years people raised two opposite arguments about the West: one saying that it did too much and the other that is did too little, more likely referred to as the “too much” camp or school and the “too little” camp. (pg.167).
On the one hand, the “Too Much School” (pg.169) states that the West tried too hard to impose its own rules and ideas on the Russian country, such as democracy and privatization which Russia did not want. On the other hand, the “Too Weak School” (pg. …show more content…
The authors use the “Reset” as a support for their argument. The reset is a simple reason why the West and the United States were not at fault yesterday nor today. In fact, the “Reset” was meant to be a cooperation between the Russian Government and United States Government. It started in 2009 as an idea of President B. Obama and in the following years, the cooperation brought many social, political and economic profits to both parties. However, it lasted until 2012 when it ended mostly because of Russian corruption in politics. Therefore the West has no responsibility for Putin’s acting in 2014 (pg.172-173). Putin, instead during the years of cooperation learned more about the United States flaws and weaknesses and that is probably why he went on with the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Ukraine, because he knew that the opposition would have not reacted to