The Russian regime is experimenting with a three-pronged strategy against which the West is struggling to react: “to be against the West; to be inside of the West; to be with the West,” analyst Lilia Shevtsova writes for the National Endowment for Democracy’s Resurgent Dictatorship blog.
The Kremlin’s domestic resources are shrinking, and to preserve its power is relying on a shift toward military-patriotic legitimacy driven by Russia’s military forays into Ukraine and Syria, its conflict with Turkey, and confrontation with the liberal democracies, she contends.
