Russia’s Spreading Nationalist Infection

The recent electoral upheaval in Moscow and the Kremlin’s response to it led to a wave of xenophobic jingoism, and filled the Russian public discourse with ethnocentrist and conspiratorial ideas. Russian officials had been more ardently espousing anti-Western ideas, and some high posts were then occupied by outspoken critics of an alleged U.S.-inspired plot against Russia. While these developments were worrying, success of the current Russian attempt to redemocratize would eventually imply a new rapprochement between Moscow and the West.