At the end of 2011, or 20 years after the demise of the Soviet Union, Russia finds itself at the crossroads again. In 2012, if Putin returns to the Kremlin, he will have a hard job getting rid of the system he established during the 2000s and setting up a fundamentally new paradigm. He will have to find the proper balance between technology and democracy that will fit the country for, at least, the next ten years. It is high time to move to Russia 2.0.
Recently, violence has increased significantly in Dagestan, which is also the most populous autonomous republic of the North Caucasus with its three million inhabitants. Indeed, since the end of the last decade, shootings, bombings and police raids against the strongholds of Islamist insurgents occur on a daily basis and have become an integral part of the Dagestani political landscape. This article explores the causes, evolution, current situation and prospects of the insurgency in Dagestan.
The Partnership for Modernization, which was supposed to fill the gap between Moscow and Brussels' visions of the economic and political development in Russia, proved completely vain. While the EU stresses the need for political reforms, economic integration and cooperation on science, Russia intends to use European technology to modernize its industry in order to gain political clout in the global arena. Moscow prefers to achieve this goal by signing industrial contracts at a bilateral level, leaving the political component of the Partnership to the EU.
The election of December 2010 showed that even if the result was flawed, the President still enjoys the support of a majority of the Belarusian people. Households are afraid of losing their social benefits, especially among farmers and pensioners, and enterprises do not want to lose their subsidies, which is quite a natural reaction. The time has come for politicians in Minsk to make crucial and difficult choices, if they truly want their country to develop and integrate in the world economy. Thus, during the next five years, the last dictator in Europe will face a tough agenda to survive politically as his usual tricks, known worldwide, will not succeed anymore.
Recent developments have intensified the debate regarding Russia's position in Europe and the possibility of the country enhancing its cooperation with western institutions and organizations. The NATO summit and the NATO Russia council in Lisbon are the culmination of decades of attempts to mend fences.
