Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Democratic Ukraine, autocratic Russia: Why?

Developments in the former Soviet Union in recent years were fascinating for the specialist and might have puzzled the layman: Why have Europe’s two largest countries developed in such different ways? Russia has returned to authoritarianism while Ukraine seems to be maturing towards a real democracy. How did this happen – in spite of these nations’ similar Eastern Slavic Orthodox cultures and intertwined histories?
Click here to read full article by Andreas Umland and Ingmar Bredies, in special to Kyiv Post.

Source: Kyiv Post

1 comment:

Vlad said...

Nice to see Democracy evolving in Ukraine, to the chagrin to the Russian chauvanists.
Looks like they are lagging behind Ukraine in devlopment as well planning for the future. You would think there were smarter people to run the country, but they are stuck with the same old same old.