Prof. Lingelbach: 'After Putin, Who?'
April 11, 2022
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Writing in The Hill, David Lingelbach, associate professor in The University of Baltimore's Merrick School of Business, considers the question of who might succeed Vladimir Putin as leader of Russia, as that country's war with Ukraine continues.
"[W]hen Putin does give up power, it is likely to be voluntarily and non-violently, as previous oligarchs in other countries have largely done," Prof. Lingelbach writes.
"But who could come after Putin? In thinking about some alternative futures, I've found it helpful to think in terms of three personality types: the caretaker, Putin 2.0 and the reformer. In turn, these types are represented by three individuals—Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin, Russian billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In attaching names to these three futures, I am not predicting that these three people are the most likely successors to Putin. And in identifying these alternative futures, I assume that post-Putin Russia continues to operate more or less in accordance with its constitution."
Lingelbach contextualizes each of these scenarios, and predicts that new Russian leadership representing reform is the least likely thing to happen.
Read the piece in The Hill.
Learn more about Prof. Lingelbach.
Read more commentary about the situation in Ukraine from UBalt leaders.