In authoritarian systems, national interests and objectives often conflict with the leader’s beliefs, desires and insecurities. The more centralized power is, the more likely it is that the latter will win out. Versions of this dynamic are currently playing out in China — where President Xi Jinping’s paranoid purges recently claimed the two most senior officers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) — and in Russia and the United States.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 perfectly illustrates this tension. Just a few years earlier, Russia was emerging as a global force in financial technology, with Brand Finance Banking 500 ranking the majority-state-owned Sberbank as the world’s strongest banking brand. In 2019, the Russian Direct Investment Fund reportedly raised $2 billion from foreign investors to support domestic companies developing AI solutions — part of Russia’s broader effort to strengthen its start-up ecosystem.

As Putin put it in 2020, “high-level technology” was vital to secure the future of Russia’s “distinct civilization.” But technological innovation cannot flourish without intellectual freedom and access to global knowledge. The Ukraine war — a product of Putin’s great-power fantasies — has led to the destruction of both. It also exposed the corruption of Russia’s military industries and officer corps: the war’s early months were defined by shoddy equipment and incompetent battle plans. This incited a purge of military officers and corporate bosses unseen in Russia since the fall of communism.

Today, Russia remains locked........

© The Japan Times