Grigory Yavlinsky’s Facebook page, 15.02.2019

The US Congress is preparing the next package of sanctions. Again in many countries Russia is called the main threat to the world. Moscow is put on the same “axis of evil” where once were Iraq, Libya, and now Iran and North Korea. The reasons are obvious: the annexation of the Crimea, the war in the Donbas, threats to Ukraine, the war in defense of the Assad regime, and endless spy scandals. It has been clear for a long time that this course leads to a deadlock (see “A Conscious Choice?” Novaya Gazeta, February 2015). Over the past four years, the situation has become much worse.

But Putin does not consider it necessary to change anything. On the contrary, the country is being prepared for a long immersion into complete isolation. Ministers talk with bravado about “protection” from economic sanctions with the help of some mythical “buffers”. The State Duma is preparing a law on the separation of the Russian Internet from the world (for 20 billion roubles of taxpayers). Smartphones and computers are forcibly transferred to poorly functioning or yet non-existing Russian and Chinese software.

Instead of getting out of isolation, the Kremlin decided to spend billions on digging in and living for decades in either an entrenchment or grave. And it can be a sentence to the country and people. But it is not necessarily to obey it. The society can still make reasonable steps. There is still a chance.