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Podcast: Cato Event Podcast
Episode: What Went Wrong? Russia 25 Years after the Fall of the Soviet Union
Description: December 2016 marks the 25th anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the emergence of 15 independent post-Soviet states, including Russia. The political elite of the new Russia was to play a key role in a peaceful end of the communist empire that threatened nuclear Armageddon for almost half of a century. The world greeted the entry of an independent democratic Russia onto the international stage with genuine enthusiasm and great hope. Some even believed that the world was entering a promising new era. Twenty-five years later, Russia’s autocratic regime has effectively destroyed the domestic political opposition, media freedom, an...