How the United States created Vladimir Putin

We really needed a Marshall plan-like response to the collapse of the USSR. Something to instil democratic values and ensure enough propserity and participation. Instead we sent over academic economists who advised to dismantle everything overnight because the magic of the free market would solve all problems. This leading to chaos and the pillaging of the state, forming a new oligarch class.

It’s hard to see how to put this genie back in the bottle, especially now with someone like Putin having such a firm grip on everything in Russia, but also even now interfering in our own democratic system with half of that system shockingly acting complicit with it.