Sonja Margolina on Russia's unique approach

Journalist Sonja Margolina notes that Russia's intellectuals are turning their backs on Western values and looking for their models elsewhere: "Post-Soviet society doesn't want charity but the success which the fake democracy of the 1990s failed to provide and which oil-rich authoritarianism now promises. Global players like China, who make no normative demands of other states but have reached dizzying heights, exercise a powerful attraction over the losers of the new world order. The Chinese miracle is proof to them that success and 'Western values' do not necessarily go hand in hand; that fewer personal freedoms and corrupt institutions don't necessarily lessen your chances of success. In addition to America's mistakes and Europe's abstinence, the new experience of a different kind of success, a non-Western one, is leading to a weakening in pro-Western orientation… China's success legitimises Russia's different, non-Western approach."

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