Is playing up Russian threat just politics as usual or is there more to it? Rashkin Report welcomes back one of the most respected bloggers, news and financial analysts in Russia, Slava Rabinovich, who joined the program via Skype from Moscow.
In this conversation, Slava reviews 2016 and shares some of the most important trends and news from Russia that we should keep in mind, including parliament elections, war in Syria, and the presidential elections in the United States, and Russia impact on it.
A man who would do well to serve as a prosecutor at a Putin trial, no matter when it should eventually take place, Slava methodically and logically, presents the argument for why Russia under Putin has gradually become a system of empty and corrupt institutions, waiting for a black swan event to collapse completely.
Perhaps most of all, Slava is frustrated by the silence of the Russian people, who are allowing Putin to do whatever he wants both in the world and in Russia as real incomes in Russia are down for the 3rd year in a row and the country lacks internationally recognized borders.
When it comes to the US, Slava's opinion is that we have been in a war since Russia annexed Crimea, and the longer United States chooses to stay out of it, the higher will be the price to pay, when it eventually gets involved, similarly to what happened during WWII, when America only got involved after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor 2 years after the war began.