If nothing else, Vladimir Putin is a great political survivor. When protests broke out in Moscow four years ago against his return to the presidency, many in the West wrote him off (a widely cited work proposed to tell How Russia Fell in and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin). However, on 3 December Putin delivered yet another annual ‘State of the Nation’ address as President of Russia. Rarely has he been so popular.
Even today, Western commentators often give the impression that they’ve ‘seen the future and the future is not Putin’. But surveys by Russia’s independent Levada Centre provide …read more