The March 2012 elections in Russia seem likely to return Vladimir Putin to power for a third presidential term, despite rising levels of discontent and the ruling party’s dwindling popularity. What is the nature of the system over which Putin has presided, and how has it dealt with the challenges facing this vast multi-ethnic state in the wake of the traumas of the 1990s and in face of the global downturn since 2008? Tony Wood is Deputy Editor of theNew Left Review, contributes regularly to Le Monde Diplomatique, and has written extensively about Russia. He will look at the current situation there in the light of the forthcoming elections, and at Russia’s relationships with the outside world.
2012 Cafes
- What is going on in Mali and the Western Sahel?
- What drives America’s Global Strategy?
- Offshore Tax Havens: how the wealthy loot the world
- How Western Hubris Lost Afghanistan
- The European Far Right: How great a threat are they?
- Greece: At what price membership of Europe?
- Iran – Why is the West preparing its public for a new War in the Middle East?
- Does the Chinese miracle herald the collapse of capitalism?
- The Global Tyranny of International Debt
- Syria: The most costly revolution of the Arab Spring?
- Whose fault is famine? Starvation in the face of plenty
- The energy challenge for UK and Europe
- The Face of Putin’s Russia
- Exploitation, Debt & Aid in Egypt and Tunisia: What Direction for the Revolutions?