If Putin continues to rule Russia the way he does now, with no friendly or hostile “Black Swans” arriving before he goes, this is what will go down in history:
- Under Putin, due to the windfall of historically high oil prices,
Russia experienced the wealth and stability unprecedented in more than 1000 years of our history. - Putin stopped the process of
Russia shedding our dependencies after the break up of the Soviet Union.He also put an end to the post-WW2 order of European security systemby unilaterally taking Crimea from Ukraine. - Putin is the first Russian ruler during the last 100 years who did not try to modernize
the country . He views modernity as a factor of instability. As a counterweight, he reinforces the elements of Russian imperial,orthodox political tradition, an assertive military and the economy basedon large-scale extraction and export of natural resources. Internationally, he aligns himself with China who he considers as a politicallyand socially conservative, but economically successful force. Putin successfully introduced—in Europe, for the first time since the Venetian Republic—a system where the secret policeforms the core ofthe national political system, and secret operatives the backbone ofthe ruling class.