Russia's Lawfare Offensive Part One - Combat by Other Means - Weaponising the Law - with Mark Voyger

It’s easy to forget that modern Russia only came into existence 30 years  ago – from the ashes of the Soviet Union. It had to start from scratch  in creating a rules-based, market economy. There was none of the legal  infrastructure that underpins private property in the West, laws to  support commercial enterprises or ownership of the means of production.  Yet the Soviet Union had a very well-developed criminal class and shadow  economy at the time of its collapse. Apart from criminals there were  few people with the capital resources to take advantage of the changes  when the old system collapsed. Is it any wonder that Russia developed  into the world’s largest kleptocracy?    Today I’m speaking with Mark Voyger, Director of the Master’s Program  American University in Kyiv Ukraine and a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at  the Centre for European Policy Analysis. Mark is an experienced Special  Advisor on Russia, Eurasia and the Middle East, with a distinguished  history of working for the military. He is skilled in International  Affairs, Government and Intelligence. Mark is a Senior army civilian  professional with a double Master’s in International Relations and  Public Administration. He is fluent in Russian, Arabic, French, Spanish,  Italian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Turkish. And significantly for our  conversation today he is a specialist in the area of Russian lawfare  (legal warfare), and how evolution of law contributes to the creation of  a rules-based society.