Michael K. Launer is Emeritus Professor of Russian Linguistics at Florida State University. For 25 years he was an interpreter for United States Government funded nuclear safety programs and seminars aimed at operating staff from Soviet-designed power plants. Along with David Cratis Williams (Florida Atlantic University) and Marilyn J. Young (Florida State University), Professor Launer is most recently the author of The Rhetorical Rise and Demise of “Democracy” in Russian Political Discourse. Volume Three: Vladimir Putin and the Redefinition of “Democracy” – 2000-2008, published in 2024 by Academic Studies Press (Brookline, Massachusetts). Volume Four: The Demise of “Democracy” after Putin’s Return to Power is in preparation, with publication expected in 2025. A Russian translation of one chapter from Volume Four will appear in Forum 2024, a journal published in Germany that is devoted to literary criticsm and political analysis.
