© Sputnik / Evgeny Biyatov
A few months ago, US/UK media outlets and think tanks warned that the Covid-19 crisis meant Russia faced economic ruin. Now, as we enter the fall, it turns out Moscow is in a far better condition than most of its Western rivals.
Russia 'experts' in the English-speaking world love predicting the imminent downfall of the "Putin regime." Whether it be the 2012 Bolotnaya protests, Western sanctions, the collapse in the oil price, or anything else, pundits are always on the lookout for indicators and warnings that Russia's president and the system he governs are on the verge of breakdown.
It was hardly a surprise, therefore, that the arrival of the coronavirus provoked the commentariat into another round of doom-laden prognostications about Russia's future. In particular, experts reckoned that the country's fragile economy, already struggling to recover from its 2014 slump, was bound to suffer particularly badly, with negative political consequences for the Kremlin.
As spring turned into summer, newspapers told readers of Russia's "dire economic situation" and "looming economic collapse.""This is arguably the most serious challenge to Putin as national leader in the 20 years he has been in power, and he is failing it," stated one of the Western media's favored commentators, Mark Galeotti.
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