Paul Goble blogs today about comments made by Irina Pavlova and others regarding the willingness of the West to buy into the idea of rapprochement, while others think that government policy is taking yet another step back toward Stalinism.

But instead, the Moscow commentator continues, “many are concluding that the powers that be [in the Russian Federation] are sending signals [to their own people and the West] about the beginning of a change in policy direction and perhaps about the coming or a new ‘thaw’ or even ‘perestroika.'”