Determinants of Russia's Political Elite Security Thought: Similarities and Differences between the Soviet Union and Contemporary Russia.

POLITICAL elites; PUBLIC opinion; LABOR unions; ATTITUDE (Psychology); DOMESTIC terrorism; HISTORY of the Soviet Union

RUSSIA; SOVIET Union

This paper analyzes the Russian political elite's security thinking and, through comparison of the similarities and differences between Soviet-era and current elite security thinking, how it has been influenced by historical experience, Russian domestic politics, and trends of the international system. The paper also attempts to analyze the influence of the political elite's security thinking on general public threat perception. The article argues that prospective Russian political elite external security attitudes are influenced by continuing threat perceptions based on past experiences in Russian history and Russia's perceived weaknesses, which fuel fears triggered by domestic, political, and socio-economic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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