Russia-West: Rising Stakes

... state. In this paradigm, “good” civil society and “bad” government were opposed to each other. Moscow’s growing and understandable allergy was evoked by the notion of the “Russian regime”. It hinted or even directly indicated that the West somehow sees civil society as opposed to the government and does not consider it part of one political community. The more deliberate and demonstrative this approach was on the part of Western states, the more opposition it generated in Moscow. In the West, the explanation ...