Adam O’Neal
WSJ, Jan. 7, 2022
“… more may be known about Nikita Khrushchev’s thinking than Mr. Putin’s.”
This year dawned, 30 years after the Soviet Union’s dissolution, amid shades of the Cold War. Russian paratroopers deployed to Kazakhstan this week to help quell unrest. Moscow has massed tens of thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine, and the world wonders if Vladimir Putin is about to seize more territory from a former Soviet republic.
At the same time, Mr. Putin has stepped up repression inside Russia’s borders. Last month Russia’s Supreme Court ordered the liquidation of human-rights group International Memorial, which documents Soviet-era crimes. The government also detained associates of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Mr. O’Neal is a Europe-based editorial page writer for the Journal.
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