Heritage Foundation
Ariel Cohen, Senior Research Fellow
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative research and educational institution founded in 1973. Ariel Cohen is a senior research fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Policy with the Heritage Foundation. 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.” Russia has missed its historic opportunity to build a modern, law-based society and a democratic system of government since the collapse of communism in 1991. This is for several reasons. First of all, remnants of the Communist Party and the…