https://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2012/12/28/back-in-the-ussr/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usWed, 10 Jun 2026 01:58:05 -0400<![CDATA[They don’t call it the KGB anymore, but anyone with a normally developed  sense of self-preservation will regard the FSB with a healthy measure of caution. Similarly, anyone who is interested in the life perpendicular will think twice about criticizing Russia’s perpetual president, Vladimir Putin. Those worried about the resurgence of a Soviet-style totalitarian empire can take some solace, perhaps, from the fact that Russia is a country in a demographic death spiral. Or perhaps that fact offers little solace.  Putin, as Walter Russell Mead put it, may well be whistling  in the dark as mother Russia declines, but I am not sure either the decline or the whistling does much for those caught in bombastic would-be dictator’s web of desperation.]]>Fri, 28 Dec 2012 06:57:10 -0500<![CDATA[Roger Kimball]]>https://pjmedia.com/roger-kimball/2012/12/28/back-in-the-ussr-n117260