Nina Khrushcheva on Russia's 'outdated' image of greatness

Jian speaks to Nina Khrushcheva, grand-daughter of late Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, and professor of International Affairs at the New School in New York. 

Khrushcheva explains why she thinks Russia is chasing an outdated idea of its national glory, why liberal reforms don't seem to last for very long in the country, and what she thinks it would take to move forward. 

"Russia very rarely looks at its mistakes, and that is a problem. It doesn't apologize," she says, arguing that the country limits itself by fashioning itself as an "un-West" in need of a strong hand to guide it. 

A rigid 'paradigm of greatness'

Krush differentiates between advancements in technology and mobility, which she has seen in Russia, and a change in long-held values and traditional mentalities. 

"When I talk about 'no changes' I talk more about the mental status, not about the the environment ... the old formulas we continue to employ," she says. 

Much of the progress she's seen "doesn't prevent Russia from using the same paradigm of greatness. It's that 'what we are, against everybody else'." 

This spring, the academic will publish a new book called The Lost Krushchev: A Journey into the Gulag of the Russian Mind.