Paul Goble has summarized an important argument by Olesya Yakhno published on Vlasti.net with regard to the increasingly tenuous illusion of stability in the wake of violent race riots at the walls of the Kremlin. It’s these perceptions and presumptions of what Russia is and isn’t, as argued in an upcoming RA op/ed next week, that have led relations with the West to their current, disastrous myopia. At the very least, Yakhno has a point in that neither Putin nor Medvedev have yet displayed a very good understanding of the ultra-nationalism currently being uncorked in the society.

In their assessments, the Vlasti.net commentator says, “neither from Medvedev nor from Putin did we hear about the extent of the problem.” Instead, they talked about “hooliganism, extremism, and nationalism,” suggesting that they retain their “faith in the all-powerfulness of administrative and force solutions.”