Hayek's Road to Serfdom has been quoted too. East European radical reformers are frequently cited. So the entire legitimacy of the Soviet system has been publicly put into question, and the legitimacy of doing this has been formally recognized by the abandonment, after seventy years, of the monopoly of the communist party. It is losing members, at all levels. The party has lost popularity, purpose, the ability to get its orders obeyed.
Alternatives seem many, but they are confused, contradictory, diffuse.
A power vacuum threatens. The Afghan intervention was abandoned, the decision to intervene unequivocally condemned. There was a complete transformation of policies toward and attitudes to the West, to NATO, to America, and to the Third World too. Support for overseas countries with a so-called socialist orientation has been sharply criticized, overseas aid diminished. A satirical article by Ye.