ABSTRACT
The political inertia of transformed institutions has exerted a steady pressure on Russians to accept what the Kremlin supplies as normal, and the longer the new regime remains in place, the greater the pressure on its subjects to adapt to it (Rose, Mishler and Munro, 2006: Chapter 9). Two decades after the abrupt launch of glasnost and perestroika, Russians have had lots of time to learn what is now normal. The turnover of generations has resulted in the median NRB respondent having spent almost half his or her adulthood as a citizen of the Russian Federation rather than a Soviet subject. Yet the turnover of generations is not necessary for people to adapt to transformation
(Mishler and Rose, 2007), and the capacity of Russians to adapt leaves open the nature of the norms to which they have adapted.
