Allen C. Lynch is professor of politics at the University of Virginia and former director of the university’s Center for Russian & East European Studies (1993–2008). He is a former assistant director of the W. Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union at Columbia University. He is the author of several books, including Vladimir Putin and Russian Statecraft (2011), How Russia Is Not Ruled: Reflections on Russian Political Development (2005) and Does Russia Have a Democratic Future? (1997). He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following is adapted from the forthcoming Understanding Contemporary Russia, 2nd edition, edited by Michael L. Bressler. Used … Continue reading From the desk of Allen C. Lynch: The Russia-Ukraine Conflict