YEREVAN. – Russia’s leadership prefers to collaborate with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) rather than with post-Soviet countries, University of California at Berkeley Political Science Professor Steven Fish stated during a discussion at Caucasus Institute in Armenian capital Yerevan.

In his view, Russia is among those autocratic regimes which, nonetheless, are trying to develop economy. “This is how we can explain the double standard in perceiving Putin’s regime. Note everyone is happy with what is happening in the country, yet they support him in the elections because, in general, social welfare is higher than the 1990s, when Russia was ruled by a group of oligarchs,” Fish stated.   

“There really was a sense of choice within Russian society in the 1990s, but, at the end of the 1990s, no one believed in it and they more or less got used to the quasi-democratic regime. Some intellectuals may not accept the current regime, but the majority’s support is on Putin’s side,” Steven Fish maintained.