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How Putin is Preparing for 2021 Challenges

Jamie Dettmer

   This year marks the 30th anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet
   Union. The December collapse was jolting in its speed and followed a
   failed coup by hard-liners against then-Soviet leader Mikhail
   Gorbachev.

   Many Russians will celebrate the anniversary privately, although no
   formal ones are planned by state authorities. For Russian President
   Vladimir Putin, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was "the greatest
   geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century."

   But it is an event also preoccupying the Kremlin today, analysts and
   Western diplomats say, a haunting historical example of how quickly an
   authoritarian state can unravel. They say a lesson being drawn inside
   the Kremlin is to double-down on using state power to maintain control.

   Bracing for challenge

   They point to the poisoning of Russian opposition activist Alexei
   Navalny last year as a sharp escalation in a Kremlin campaign seemingly
   aimed at squashing dissent and silencing alternative political voices.

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