Back in the 1990s, when modern Russia emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union, the West was the best. It offered the only realistic role model. Times have changed, but the penny hasn’t dropped yet in Brussels or Washington.
Today, the situation has changed dramatically. A good illustration is how Russia has responded to criticism in the light of the Alexey Navalny case. Previously, when confronted with similar situations around Yukos (a collapsed oil giant fraudulently acquired by oligarchs in the 1990s), Pussy Riot, or any other issue, Moscow tried to justify its actions to Western fault-finders using their own line of argument – even though sometimes Russian officials could be too harsh and emotional when making their case.
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