Originally Published in Madras Courier
Editorial Note
The humiliations of the past continue to shape today’s geopolitics, hardening grievances into conflict.
On 25 December 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev watched the Soviet flag lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. In the West, the moment signalled the triumph of liberal democracy and the end of the Cold War. Missing from the jubilation was any effort — equivalent to the Marshall Plan — to integrate post-Soviet Russia into a shared security and economic order.