He later dropped hints of an unusually accommodating outlook. His televised message, coming hours after a sad and ill Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation, praised Russia’s moves toward “democracy and reform” and promised continued freedom of speech and conscience. Vladimir Putin’s sudden ascent to the Kremlin as acting president on New Year’s Eve 1999 was startling but suggested some welcome order was coming. National broadcasters covered politics intently, often tendentiously, and some weekend news shows were considered must-see TV. The political scene was lively, if disorderly, with seven parties and about two dozen independent lawmakers holding a marked array of views. Eight years after the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia still appeared unable to get a grip.Īmid it all, there was plenty of fun to be had, but it didn’t feel so much like coming-of-age joy as a last revel - garish casinos lit up main drags and kiosks perched on almost every corner, offering vodka and beer 24/7. Rather than reconstructing lives, Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika had undermined many of them economic “shock therapy” was therapeutic only for some. For Muscovites, it was a daily burden of unpredictability and embarrassment. A shop that nominally sold flowers was stacked to the ceiling with bags of dog food.įor a foreigner getting paid in a stable currency, this was engaging black comedy. Among the locals trying to scrape together money was a woman who peddled smoked fish and bras. Prostitutes milled outside an emergency clinic. ![]() My first neighborhood in Moscow was full of startling scenes. Now assigned to Estonia, I sit on the other side and try to parse Russia’s lost promise - seemingly both inexplicable and inevitable. I spent 24 years on one side of the Narva River as a Moscow-based correspondent for The Associated Press, cheered by Russia’s steps forward and disheartened by its retreats into anger and animosity. In 2022, it launched a war against Ukraine that sharply intensified the growing isolation. Russia initially cultivated lively debate and flamboyantly welcomed the world, then gradually choked off freedoms and closed itself off while its citizens fled and uneasy foreigners felt compelled to leave. The countries that once were part of the Soviet Union took radically different paths after the USSR’s collapse.Įstonia largely fulfilled the wish of its former President Toomas Hendrik Ilves to become “just another boring Northern European country.” With low-key determination, Estonia remade itself into a model of order and ease, enticing to startup companies and “digital nomads.” ![]() They’re almost comically close: People with strong arms could have a game of catch between the ramparts.īut the proximity is deceptive - the psychological distance between Estonia and Russia is immense and only widening. NARVA – At the Ivangorod-Narva border crossing, the last glimpse of Russia is of a sprawling fortress and the first sight of Estonia is another fortress on the other bank of a slender river.
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