Michigan State University Professor Vladimir Shlapentokh recently posted this essay on Johnson's Russia List and gave UCSJ permission to post it here.

The money quotes:

1. "Political life in Russia revolves around two issues: corruption and xenophobia."

2. "[T]he role of xenophobia in Russia will increase in the next years. With the elites' growing self-confidence, which is based on the country's massive revenues from oil and gas, and with the high level of social polarization, xenophobia in its various forms (anti-Americanism, hostility toward the former Soviet republics and various ethnic minorities) will be the single most effective ideological tool for the elites."

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