MIKHAIL SOLOVYEV was born on December 31st, 1999. It was a bitter day, even by Siberian standards, with temperatures of -50ºC. Trams and taxis in Novosibirsk stopped working, but his mother made it to hospital and entered the new millennium with a baby boy in her arms. That same day, some 3,400km away in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin sat before a New Year’s tree in the Kremlin and slurred over a fateful speech: “I’m leaving,” he told his countrymen. He deposited Russia in the arms of a new leader, Vladimir Putin.
In the ensuing 18 years, as Mr Putin consolidated his power in Moscow, Mikhail grew into a strapping young man. He is now a proud member of a local military-patriotic club, as well as an environmental activist with a soft spot for endangered birds. He dreams of becoming a signals operator in the Russian army. This weekend, on March 18th, he and his peers will be eligible to vote in a presidential election for the first time. He has yet to decide whom he will support. Regardless of whom he chooses, Mr Putin will win. But even a tsar...Continue reading
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