Everything Is (Not) Going According to Plan

Putin’s aggression against Ukraine reveals the weaknesses of his regime, and may be its unraveling, while Kyiv needs to channel Vukovar to win

Way back in 1988, in the waning days of the Soviet Union, a Siberian punk band with the ironic name Civil Defense* rocked the Russian music charts with a song that captured the period when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts to reform the dying system, so-called perestroika, were failing and hopes were giving way to despair amid shortages. It was …