For the past week or so I have been making notes for a piece to be entitled “Russian Exceptionalism.” It opens with Michael McFaul’s account of a meeting in March 2011 between then Vice President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, serving a term as Russia’s prime minister before in effect installing himself as president for life. McFaul, who would go on to serve as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, was in the room. With the caveat that he was paraphrasing from memory, McFaul reported that at one point Putin told Biden, “You look at us and you see our skin and then assume we think like you. But we don’t” (McFaul,
The Musings of a Scribbler, February 6, 2024
The Musings of a Scribbler, February 6, 2024
The Musings of a Scribbler, February 6, 2024
For the past week or so I have been making notes for a piece to be entitled “Russian Exceptionalism.” It opens with Michael McFaul’s account of a meeting in March 2011 between then Vice President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, serving a term as Russia’s prime minister before in effect installing himself as president for life. McFaul, who would go on to serve as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, was in the room. With the caveat that he was paraphrasing from memory, McFaul reported that at one point Putin told Biden, “You look at us and you see our skin and then assume we think like you. But we don’t” (McFaul,