> They could have smashed any uprising - but they choose not to. Doubtful, unless you're talking about the soldiers choosing not to. The coup attempt in 1991 p

> They could have smashed any uprising - but they choose not to. Doubtful, unless you're talking about the soldiers choosing not to. The coup attempt in 1991 proved that the army in general had no interest in propping up the failing communist regime. Even if they wanted to they failed to defeat Chechnya a couple years later despite it being smaller several than east Europe by several magnitudes. > But there was a time when they were open for change. In my opinion, the west blew it. Well most of Eastern Europe ended up doing just fine despite most of the 90s being a disaster there just like in Russia. So it seems like Russia actually blew it themselves (and well to be fair Ukraine and Belarus too). > First, russia is not a monolithic coherent group. Well I'm sorry but you're the one who keeps saying "they" and that "Russia wanted X" which implies that they are a single monolithic coherent group (then again one might argue whether that's really the case in Russia currently).