It was what the world wanted: the end of the Soviet Union, the "evil empire," the Communist stronghold. And the USSR did, in fact, dissolve.
So why is the world generally unhappy with what followed? Because the Russia we got, with the autocratic Vladimir Putin in command, is a far cry from the democratic republic we hoped for.
Russian native Arkady Ostrovsky goes back to the Cold War to explain how we got here, in his book The Invention of Russia. Ostrovsky's insights help us understand how the country of tsars became the country of Putin; he visits The Exchange to discuss his view.
