Mar 18, 2012 -- 8:00PM, arielg wrote:

I am disputing  your statement that  "stability is the friendly face of stagnation".

Hmm, okay. Fair enough.

I.o.w., you think Syria's Assad era was not an era of stagnation, right?

On what would you base such an assessment?

If I read you wrong, please check the logical structure of your one-sentence retort before further commenting. I suspect you may have fallen into a dualism / "law of the excluded middle" trap.

Alternatively, are there any signs or reasons to assume that yet another one or two Putin terms will not be an era of stagnation?