Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has given the world’s democrats a renewed sense of unity and purpose. Galvanized by a sense of common threat and existential peril, Western democracies have imposed biting sanctions on Russia, boosted weapons and aid shipments to Ukraine, and increased military spending dramatically. This vigorous and unified response from Western democracies contrasts their muted replies to the past decade of democratic malaise, which was characterized by serious—though slow and surreptitious—authoritarian attacks. The Russian invasion may also weaken the emerging “authoritarian international” as the conflict has proved far more difficult and costly to Russia than expected. Whether the invasion marks a turning point for the liberal world order will depend in part on whether the world’s democrats can maintain solidarity through the crisis.
Food has been crucial to the survival of regimes since the emergence of early states. Yet despite its significance, until recently food availability was rarely discussed as a principal political issue outside the global South. This essay centers on the political role of food in Putin’s Russia and the Kremlin’s longstanding goal of establishing nutritional autarky that would insulate the regime from dependence on food imports. We present the origins of Putin’s food policies, their ideological basis and the forms that they have taken since early 2000s. We also discuss Russia’s use of food as a weapon during the 2022 war in Ukraine.
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