Dr Mark Galeotti joins Last Week on Earth for a conversation on Russia. Galeotti, Director of the consultancy firm Mayak Intelligence, Honorary Professor at UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies and Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI, has spent the last 40 years researching Russian history and security issues. In the episode, he gives an introduction his latest book A Short History of Russia while sharing some short anecdotes from Russia's history, specifically about the character that is Peter the Great.Galeotti tells the history of modernisation in Russia and how different rulers have approached the subject, with occasional bloody despotism. Today in Putin's Russia, modernisation has partly advanced through technical solutions, but they are still lacking in rule of law and corruption. However, Galeotti describes how there might soon be an advancement of rule of law by the kleptocratic elite. These corrupted leaders, who have stolen from the public good, will soon get the incentive to create rule of law to protect their stolen plunder and support the transfer of wealth to the new generation. There are many misconceptions about Russia, one of them being that the West assumes that Russia always, cunningly, has a plan. Like any other state, Russia is a diverse and opportunistic country, that is not as centrally controlled country as many people may think. They want to be perceived as strong and powerful, and they thus act accordingly, regardless of their actual geopolitical status. When looking at Russia, there is a consistent focus on Putin, who, on one hand is a powerful actor but far from the only one. Russia's administration is complex one with many important characters who often tend to get overlooked.The discussion continues by addressing the new Biden administration, the recent summits and what the newly elected American president would like to see from Russia. The Russo-American relation is special and for Russia, the single most important actor is the US, thus meaning that the EU is not prioritised - the US have clear leadership and collective approach while the policy vision of the EU is a scattered one.Global Arena Research Institute is an independent, non-partisan research organisation that combines the most advanced methods of AI-driven data, scientific and other artificial reasoning capabilities, elevating data science into completely new levels of opportunity. Our goal is to provide unprecedented insights into the nature, impact, and management of globalization in order to improve institutional and governmental as well as business, energy and other sectors’ decision making. Our mission is to make the most of organically connecting AI-level reasoning capacities with the human-level critical reasoning capacities for the sake of a better future.If you want better insights into challenges and decisions you or your business are facing, GARI’s analytical services are of unmatched complexity and high accuracy - whether your questions are on the green energy transition, trade and supply chains, or political and security related - contact us for a free consultation and see how you can optimise your decision-making.www.globari.org@LinkedIn @GARInstitute) / Twitter