Gorbachev sought to build up the system by adding transparency and accountability, opening the country for those who at least wanted to consider the West.
The far-fetched hope is that Putin actually loses his grip on power as oligarchs and his people decide that two decades in near-absolute power has been enough.īut the Cold War ended as much because of the Soviet system’s flaws as the West’s cultural creep into Mother Russia. The new pressure on Russia hardens the line between Russia and the West, which may achieve its economic goal of so crippling the Russian economy that Putin decides to withdraw his forces from Ukraine. Some, though, recognize the damage they could deal their reputations-if not America’s standing-with a total shutdown PepsiCo is continuing to process milk, cheese and baby formula at its Russian sites while McDonald’s will keep paying its 62,000 employees despite shutting down 850 counters. Now, companies like Boeing and Ford, all Big Four accounting firms, and financial institutions like American Express have pulled out of Russia, eliminating thousands of jobs and billions in goods and services. Such cultural interactions helped thaw relations between the two global powers and softened the image of the Eagle in the land of the defeated Bear. As Moscow opened up to the West’s footprint three decades ago, Big Mac boxes became status symbols. The net effect has been the recall of Uncle Sam from Moscow, a striking reversal from the end of the Cold War.