When the Soviet Union collapsed more than thirty years ago, American leaders hoped that Russia would embark on a transition to free-market democracy. Shared democratic values, the thinking went, woul…

After the 2013–14 Revolution of Dignity, which overthrew a deeply corrupt, Russian-backed regime, Ukraine declared its ambition to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community of free-market democracie…

Since its emergence as an independent state in 1991, Ukraine has made little progress in consolidating democratic rule. A powerful oligarchy has dominated the country’s politics and economy. Corrupti…

When the new Russia emerged from the wreckage of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was widely expected to embark on a democratic transition. In the then dominant Western narrative, it had no alternative i…