LP

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