Leon Aron

Many people have pronounced Russia a “failing state” in which democracy has failed to take hold and economic reforms have not brought prosperity. Because of this, writes Leon Aron in the following viewpoint, a debate has emerged within the United States over the question of “who lost Russia"” According to Aron, however, those who proclaim Russia to be “lost” fail to appreciate how far its political and economic conditions have improved since the waning days of the Soviet Union. Since 1991, he argues, Russia has held numerous contested elections on national and local levels, its press operates free of censorship, and political power has become more decentralized. Aron is director of Russian studies at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Boris Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life...