The democratic choice Russian people made in the early 90's is final.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think everyone remembers how certain Russian bureaucrats used to work against the Ukrainian opposition; I think it is hard to drop old habits.
Today's Russia is not to be compared with the Soviet Union of back then.
Deep in my heart, I still believe that the democratization of Russia and the democratization of Ukraine will proceed.
I don't have any comment on who the people of Russia choose to be their leaders.
In my personal opinion, Russia is no less democratic than it used to be. It is a democratic country. It is democratic enough.
I left Russia in 1993 optimistic that democracy had taken hold despite the obstacles.
I thought that in general we in the United States were too optimistic in believing that the Soviets might alter what had been for a long time, as a matter of fact for centuries, fundamental Russian policies in respect to the rest of the world.
In the post war period I began again to have my doubts about Russian policy.
Despite elections and the experience of post-Soviet personal freedoms by the Russian people, the fate of democracy in Russia is perhaps more ambiguous now than at any time since the collapse of the Communist system.
The great drama of Russian history has been between its state and society. Put simply, Russia has always had too much state and not enough society.