Serge Schmemann: ‘Winter Is Coming,’ by Garry Kasparov
The Standard of the President of Russian Federation flies at half-mast over the Kremlin in Moscow on Nov. 1.
Russians in positions of power tend to measure their country's standing in the world against the United States, longing to be recognized as equally important and powerful and getting very angry when they're not so treated. President Vladimir Putin has made victimhood at America's hands a leitmotif of his reign, and many Russians have bought into his claim that Washington tirelessly seeks ways to weaken, impoverish and otherwise humiliate their country.
