Tim Richardson and Anna Nemzer, Opinion contributors Sat, June 20, 2026 at 9:04 a.m. UTC 6 min read Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. In the United States, Russia's descent into autocracy has long been cited as a cautionary tale by those warning of democratic backsliding. Now, we risk parts of that history becoming our own. In the early 2000s in Russia, the outward facade of democracy remained in place, even as authoritarianism took deeper root.
