MOSCOW, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- UPI's Moscow-based analyst Peter Lavelle interviewed economist and prolific author Vlad Sobell of the Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd. Sobell defended Vladimir Putin, spoke out on Chechnya, and predicted Russia's future.
Q. In a recent research report you wrote titled, "Why Russia is confusing," you buck the new conventional wisdom on Russia in a number of ways. Namely you question what many journalists and analysts call "Russia's growing authoritarianism" under President Vladimir Putin. You also claim that explaining what is happening in Russia is understood and reported in the Western media is very selective at best. Based on your report, what is it that makes Russia so difficult to interpret at present?
A. Russia clearly is too important a country for us to tolerate what I feel is its persistent and widespread misrepresentation by the analytical, journalistic and academic community. Most of the output -- at least what one sees in the daily compilation of Johnson's Russia List -- tends to be negative, dismissive of Russia's achievements since its post-Soviet transition, interpreting the inevitable shortcomings virtually as a return to Soviet totalitarianism. It is remarkable that both the Russian and Western analysts are guilty in equal measure. I do not understand their motivation, but it seems that the search for a persuasive interpretation of an admittedly contradictory and complex reality has been replaced by a competition in the delivery of the most scathing attack on an allegedly authoritarian Putin regime.
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