“…Instead, the regression to cults of the ruler, the criminal-like nature of the ruling elite, the repressiveness and insecurity of property, and the reintroduction of the service state based on the concept of a "boyar"-like retinue around an allpowerful ruler all argue strongly for seeing contemporary Russia in the light of the medieval and feudal, if not Third World, analogy. Arguably, in many ways contemporary Russia resembles a feudal society and state, especially the Muscovite model postulated by many Western writers including this author (Baker and Glasser, 2005;Hellie, 2005;Rosefielde, 2004;Poe, 2003;Pipes, 1974;Balzer, 2005;Blank, 2007a;Hedlund, 2005). Indeed, Richard Hellie and Stefan Hedlund have suggested that, because time and again, Russia has reverted to this model of the patrimonial service state described here, its inclination to do so is path-dependent.-i.e., it is the same learned response to continuing challenges, which are all seen in the same light and therefore require the same answer or a similar one (Hellie, 2005;Hedlund, 2005).…”