Preparing Russia for Permanent War
Today, the Kremlin is working tirelessly to give the impression that Russia is a beacon of stability and strength, and that a grateful people is fervently devoted to their leader, Vladimir Putin. But behind the façade lie despair, paranoia, intolerance, rage, and proliferating violence.
MOSCOW – In the late eighteenth century, Catherine the Great planned a tour of Crimea, which her court favorite, Count Grigory Potemkin, had conquered a few years earlier. But while Potemkin had managed to seize the agriculturally rich peninsula from the Ottoman Empire, he had failed to achieve the promised colonization.