Modern Russia

• Kremlin
  • The “white house” of Russia
  • Centralized → very powerful
• Shock therapy
  • Going from one side of the economic/political spectrum to the other very quickly
  • USSR: communism → capitalism
  • “Boys in Reeboks”: American advisors that suggested the sudden change
  • Consequences:
  • Prices increase
  • Less government subsidies
    • Subsidy: money granted by the government
  • Increases unemployment
  • Creates class division
• Oligarchs
  • Small groups of extremely wealthy businessmen
  • Got their wealth from privatization during shock therapy
  • Political influence using wealth/bribery
  • Influence on election outcome
  • Claim questionable tax breaks
  • Access to special licenses
• Boris Yeltsin, 1991-1999
  • First popularly elected president of Russia
  • Stopped hardliner communists from throwing a coup against Gorbachev
  • End of the USSR → communists were upset
  • Changes:
  • Freedom to speak openly
  • Freedom to travel
  • Presidential + parliamentary elections
  • Funneled enormous wealth into the hands of a few → oligarchs
    • Economic reforms hurt more then helped
    • Caused political + social division
• Personalist autocrat ^^(Vladimir Putin)^^
  • Run by lone individuals
  • Higher levels of corruption
  • Whatever policies/officials they want
  • Slower economic growth
  • Less focused on the betterment of the state
  • Greater repression
  • Target political opponents
  • Censor/punish protests and dissent
  • Less stable policies
  • Informal inner circle for advice
• Rehabilitation of Stalin’s image
  • Downplaying his mistakes
  • Purged millions
  • Gulags (labor camps)
  • Playing up his successes
  • Built nationalism
  • Under Putin, people’s support for Stalin rose
• FSB
  • “Federal Security Service”
  • Successor to KGB
  • Secret Soviet police
• Magnitsky Act
  • Bill Browed: richest foreign investor in Russia
  • Expelled by Putin → sent lawyer Magnitsky
    • Kept in prison, tortured, killed
  • Magnitsky Act: sanction that froze the American bank accounts of the officials involved in Magnitsky’s death
  • Still active
• Alexei Navalny
  • Putin’s greatest political opponent
  • Poisoned him → survived → currently in jail
  • Shows how dissent in Russia is dealt with
  • Political martyr
• Ukraine
  • Yanukovich = Ukrainian president
  • Chose closer ties with Russia over joining the European Union
    • Euromaiden protest → want to join the EU
    • Russia wants Ukraine to be loyal → Putin needs Ukraine for his future plans
• Crimea
  • Referendum by Russia on whether or not they wanted to be annexed
  • Said yes → EU assumes it was forced → sanctions
• Syria
  • Russia supports dictator Bashar al-Assad
  • Gets to fight US through proxy war
    • US is against Assad
  • Say in the Middle East
  • Reclaim their old naval base in the Mediterranean
  • Sell weapons to Assad to make money

\