Leonid Bershidsky: Putin’s Russia will become a ‘besieged fortress’ as it moves towards a dictatorship
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual press conference in Moscow on December 18, 2014. Putin crushed Chechnya's rebellion, pushed back Russia's frontiers and restored the pride of a nation humiliated by the demise of the Soviet Union. But 15 years after he came to power Vladimir Putin's faces his biggest challenge yet: how to manage the worst monetary crisis of his era.
I hated what happened to Russia in 2014 so much that I decided to move away. It's safe to say, however, that 2015 will be worse. President Vladimir Putin's regime is one the verge of transitioning from mild authoritarianism to outright dictatorship.
