A Multiversal Trip To Russia

As Putin transforms his country into the pariah of the international community, we take an Everything Everywhere All At Once-inspired trip into the Russian multiverse

- Suffian Hakim

WHEN VLADIMIR PUTIN took office in May 2000, he inherited a Russia that managed to – albeit barely – survive the collapse of the Soviet Union. There was a cloud of gloom, but things changed quickly.

First, it successfully transitioned its economy from a centralised, state-run one to a more open, slightly privatised system that allowed foreign investment to flow in. The middle class grew more prosperous. Then, in 2003 when global commodity prices skyrocketed with the US invasion of Iraq and China’s economic boom. With Russia as the leading supplier of oil, gas and metals, everybody – from China to Europe – was suddenly buying Russian. As its treasury began flooding with export revenue, the Kremlin was able to quickly repay its post-Soviet era foreign debts and GDP nearly doubled. Russia has never been so prosperous and indeed so liberated as it did in these years. Against all odds, it found itself in a position to reclaim its superpower status.

Today, as we all know, Putin had squandered all the opportunity that was presented to Russia on a silver plaœ er, giving in to his own thirst for power and paranoia. We can’t help but wonder what if – what if Putin made different decisions along the way? What would today’s world order be like? We used an Alpha-verse verse-jumper from Everything Everywhere All At Once and visit different multiversal versions of Russia to find out.