The UK’s leading international think-tank, Chatham House, has published a paper by former British Ambassador to Moscow, Sir Roderic Lyne, looking ahead to Russia’s future in 2014.

He begins with an anecdote from the Brezhnev era, when “the KGB trailed a well-known dissident along the streets of Moscow as he glued posters onto lamp posts. At the tenth lamp post, they grabbed him and demanded an explanation of this anti-Soviet agitation. ‘Look at the poster,’ said the dissident. It was a blank sheet of paper. ‘What is the meaning of this?’ asked the KGB. ‘Don’t you see?’ replied the dissident, ‘everyone knows what’s wrong with this country, so there’s no need to write it down.’”

Sir Roderic’s paper can be read in full HERE