Daniel Treisman

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea was an improvisation designed to achieve limited aims during a moment of crisis in Ukraine.

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, critics say postcommunist reforms have failed. But the evidence says otherwise. Transition states in Europe and...

Putin seems to have embraced anti-Western nationalism to drum up domestic support, but evidence suggests that it will not work. For one thing, he is actually much...

Given Putin's political vulnerability, a showdown with the West over gay rights or Edward Snowden -- inevitable in light of Washington's cancellation of a U.S....

Moscow’s anti-Putin protesters have captured the world’s attention. But does their message resonate outside the big cities? New research shows that although...

Too often over the last decades, policymakers in Washington have viewed Moscow's resistance to U.S. policies through the lens of psychology. In fact, Russia's...

Conventional wisdom in the West says that post-Cold War Russia has been a disastrous failure. The facts say otherwise. Aspects of Russia's performance over the...

Most observers think Vladimir Putin is remaking Russia. In fact, although the faces may have changed, Putin's Russia is more like Yeltsin's than is generally...

Reporters and pundits have spun many theories as to why Yeltsin won. None of them matches the polling data. Clever campaigning, anticommunist scare tactics, even...