Mark Galeotti: Will 2016 see the three Russias diverging?
The Standard of the President of Russian Federation flies at half-mast over the Kremlin in Moscow on Nov. 1.
There have been many attempts to understand Russia by subdividing it. Is it a feudal Russia of rulers and ruled, or the "four Russias" posited by scholar Natalya Zubarevich, divided geographically and socio-economically? My own sense is that alongside such formulations, we also need to see the country and society divided into three, and the competition between them - one as much philosophical as practical - is likely to become all the sharper in 2016, defining Russia's future trajectory, and the eventual post-Putin order.
