Un lungo articolo sul New Yorker parla dell’ex ambasciatore americano in Russia (si è dimesso nel febbraio 2014, per ragioni familiari) Michael McFaul, e di come la Russia sia cambiata dagli anni ’90 ad oggi, nel segno di Vladimir Putin.

A generation ago, in 1990, as the Soviet Union was lurching toward implosion—with the economy cratering, the Communist Party unravelling, the republics rebelling, the K.G.B. plotting its revenge—McFaul, a graduate student in his mid-twenties, kept showing up in Moscow's “pro-democracy” circles, hanging out, asking questions, offering assistance and advice. McFaul was a sunny, eager guy, with a wide-open expression, shaggy blond hair, effortful Russian, and an irrepressible curiosity.