Western observers and journalists in the late 1980s and early 1990s were self-deluded in believing that Russia would become like Western liberal democracies after communism fell; this delusion lasted into Putin's early years when he paid lip service to liberal democracy.
factualpending
Speaker
Martin SixsmithEvidence Quote
“and you're looking back I mean I just realized how incredibly self-deluding I was um it was a delusion that lasted for something it did it did I mean that's a really interesting thing but the 1990s obviously the yelts in years but even into the Putin area so for the first four or five years of Putin Empire people forget that he was at least paying lip service to the ideals of liberal democracy”
Source
How The West Can Stop Putin, with Exiled Critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky | Intelligence Squared— Intelligence SquaredCreated: 8/10/2026, 10:56:34 PM
My Notes
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