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