This month’s vote will be the first conducted while Russia is involved in a major war, and Vladimir Putin is counting on a strong show of national unity and highlighting support in occupied Ukraine.

When the Soviet Union collapsed more than thirty years ago, American leaders hoped that Russia would embark on a transition to free-market democracy. Shared democratic values, the thinking went, woul…

President Vladimir Putin appears to be in firm control of Russia today, but in order to maintain it in the years ahead, he will have to manage at least three primary challenges.

After the 2013–14 Revolution of Dignity, which overthrew a deeply corrupt, Russian-backed regime, Ukraine declared its ambition to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community of free-market democracie…