Why did Russia become an autocracy after the fall of communism, while Ukraine remains a fragile democracy? The answer lies in their different responses to the rise of powerful oligarchs.
Sergei Chuzavkov/Associated PressIn late 1991, Russia and Ukraine began their post-Soviet journey from pretty much the same starting point in their political and economic development. Today, Russia under President Vladimir Putin is an autocracy verging on military dictatorship, while the Ukrainian political system, for all its flaws, has retained two important features of democracy: free competition among parties and the peaceful turnover of power.
This difference, not any threat of NATO aggression, was the real reason why Mr. Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Had Ukraine been allowed to complete its fits-and-starts transition to a stable, prosperous and Western-oriented democracy, it would have become an imminent threat to Mr. Putin’s regime. Sooner or later, the Russian people would have started to ask why they couldn’t have what Ukraine had.
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