Professor , Centre for Russian and East European Studies (CREES), University of Birmingham; Co-Director, Centre for East European Language Based Area Studies (CEELBAS) (SSEES-UCL, Oxford, CREES); Asssociate Fellow, Chatham House.
Russia’s top leadership is unprepared for negative developments, showing a surprising complacency, with revival of the smug ‘safe haven’ rhetoric which was a feature of the run up to the crisis of autumn 2008.
Efforts to enhance economic integration in the CIS have been complicated by the fact that Russia’s approach has been excessively political. If policy were based more on economic and commercial considerations in terms of costs and benefit for the Russian economy, more progress could be made.