Conference on Russia Papers

The chaotic and dysfunctional politics of the post-Soviet Russia of the 1990s and the early 2000s was viewed at the time as a transition phase on the path to liberal democracy. But in fact, Russia’s trajectory turned out to be something else entirely: a harbinger of where politics in at least some parts of the West were heading. Without the Soviet Union to embody the authoritarian threat, faith in the importance of liberal democracy became hollowed out. In the absence of the gravitas of the Cold War, politics became tabloidised, trivialised, and gamified – and Russia figured out how to hack the game. Through a campaign of active measures, political interference, and weaponised corruption, the Kremlin has aimed to export this model to advance its geopolitical agenda.