Russia and Europe

For the first time, in Russia there is no established ideology, there is no censorship and there is no state terror. Lack of land reform is changing Russian agriculture into a ‘garden plot economy’. Rising mortality and a plummeting birth‐rate depict a dramatic demographic trend. The border between the EU and Russia delineates an epidemic faultline. Russia faces de‐industrialisation and the collapse of the infrastructure, and devolution of power faces the choice between decentralisation by design or disintegration by default. A normative divide is opening up between Russia and future EU members, the Baltic States and Poland. The West can influence developments in Russia only to a limited degree.