Council on Foreign Relations
Stephen Sestanovich, Senior Fellow
The Council on Foreign Relations is a nonpartisan think tank and publisher focusing on international affairs. Stephen Sestanovich is the George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a professor of international diplomacy at Columbia University. The following is excerpted from June 13, 2013, testimony before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on “A Dangerous Slide Backwards: Russia’s Deteriorating Human Rights Situation.” Over the past year and a half, President Putin and his supporters have put in place a new strategy to restabilize their rule after the protest of 2011–2012….
