Democracy does not guarantee citizens that they will live better. But it reduces the risk that, in an autocracy, they will suffer from the arbitrariness of corrupt rulers who violate their rights, while not having the opportunity for a peaceful change of power. Why and how exactly did Russia over the past three decades move from a communist regime not to democracy, but to a new personalist authoritarianism? Post-communist Russia has not coped with the "dilemma of simultaneity" - the need to solve the problems of democratization, carry out market reforms and change the national-state structure of the country. The low involvement of citizens in politics helped Russian political actors build an authoritarian regime and concentrate power in their own hands. Will our country be able to overcome these trends and enter the path of development of political and civil liberties, or is this path closed to it for many decades?
