The
recent electoral upheaval in Moscow and the Kremlin's response to it
have led to a wave of xenophobic jingoism, and started another cycle of
penetration of Russian pubic discourse with ethnocentrist and conspirological
ideas. Russian officials have been using more ardently than hitherto
anti-Western ideas, and some high posts are now occupied by outspoken
propagandists of an alleged US-inspired conspiracy against Russia . While these developments are
worrying, a success of the current Russian attempt to re-democratize will
eventually imply a new rapprochement between Moscow and the West.
Damon Wilson is executive vice president of the Atlantic Council and a member of Freedom House’s Ukraine assessment mission. The Freedom House group plans to issue a report in June. Diplomats recently initialed a landmark agreement intended to draw Ukraine closer to the European Union, but the continued imprisonment of two major opposition leaders is pushing Ukraine further from its European aspirations.