The End of Pragmatism

Remember President Putin’s speeches from a few years back? A considerable portion of those public addresses, including the annual state of the nation, was taken up by a mind-numbing laundry list of numbers: Russia’s GDP growth, the square meters of housing that had been added, the percentage of value science added to the Russian economy, the amount by which unemployment payouts had been augmented, the number of hours children should dedicate to physical education, and the change in output by various Russian industries.

There was a time when the practical, money-conscious president knew how to lull journalists to sleep with facts and figures, keeping them waiting for his earth-shattering policy pronouncements, taking refuge in economic figures when asked a tricky question.

That Putin is no more.