A Valentine’s Day Ski Date for Putin and Lukashenko

Putin gained 76% of the March 2018 presidential vote and was re-elected for a six-year term that will end in 2024.Under Putin’s leadership, Russia has scored poorly in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index and experienced democratic backsliding according to both the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index and Freedom House’s Freedom in the World index (including a record low 20/100 rating in the 2017 Freedom in the World report, a rating not given since the time of the Soviet Union).