Two Canadian academics have a polemic op/ed in today’s Toronto Star, which calls upon the West to stop the finger-wagging over Russia’s democracy and human rights record, while asking world leaders to … well, it’s not quite clear what they are asking we should do. But they do compare Russia to a drowning person which the West has callously refused to help (which seems odd given how much we hear about strength and resurgence), and trot out all the typical victim narratives and myths about Vladimir Putin the savior, rescuing Russia from chaos without once mentioning state corruption and seizure of economy, +$100 oil, or the take over of the media. (read the Economist for a refutation of the Russia myth). Despite the kindly naive revisions and omissions of the Putin era, when it comes to talking about what Russia needs help working on, the authors do become more coherent: