Post-Soviet Russia

Politics

• Mikhail Gorbachev was the first and last president of the Soviet Union

• On Dec. 21st, 1991, he dissolved the USSR and then resigned from his position on Christmas night

Boris Yeltsin

• Yeltsin became the first elected president of Russia in June, 1992

• Barely a year later he was already having problems with the Parliament, who was blocking, overturning, and ignoring his initiatives to expand democracy and draft a new constitution.

• In September of 1993, Yeltsin dissolved the Parliament and called for new elections

• In December, a new Parliament was elected and a new constitution approved

• By mid-96, Russians had participated in 3 elections: 2 legislative and 1 presidential

• When Yeltsin was re-elected to office, this was a big step for him and the Russian voters: this was the first time a head of state had been subjected to public scrutiny and still approved for a second term.

• By this point, the government was still a strange mixture of Soviet and Western governance

• Yeltsin resigned on Dec. 31st, 1999, and Vladimir Putin was elected in March 2000.

• This election, along with the Parliament election of ’99, was judged as being free and fair by the international community

Economic Situation• The economy has undergone tremendous stress during the

transition to a free market system

• While democracy introduced new freedoms to Russians, they also lost the social security net provided by Marxism-Leninism, which had guaranteed employment, basic medical care, and government subsidies for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation

• This loss caused social and economic downturns for many Russians

• The gap widen between the richest and the poorest. By ’95, 56% of respondents in a survey had replied that their material situation had declined; only 17% replied as having improved

• In ’98, Russia faced a serious financial crisis due to the implementation of fiscal reforms and a large dependence on short-term borrowing

• In the following year, however, Russia was able to raise it’s real GDP to the highest it had been since the fall of the Soviet Union

• In 2000-01, Russia met its external debt services and made large advance repayments on IMF loans and still remains current on its foreign debt

• Since ’99, the standard of living has been on the rise but almost one-third of the population still did not meet the minimum subsistence level of money income

• The Ministry of Economic Development estimates that the number of people under the subsistence will gradually decrease by 23-25% by 2005

Foreign Relations

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Russia has taken steps to participate fully on the international stage

• Dec. 27th, 1991- Russia assumes the USSR’s seat in the UN Security Council as one of the P5

• 1994- signed the NATO Partnership for Peace and a partnership and cooperation agreement with the EU

• 1997- signed NATO-Russia Founding Act; this paved the way for a smoother partnership between Russia and the Alliance

• Russia has also become a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC)

General Info• Human rights have improved, but there are still reports of

beatings and torturing of detainees and inmates by law enforcement and correctional officers. A “human rights ombundsman” has been appointed by the Parliament in ’97

• Judicial system In ’01, the Parliament passed the Criminal Procedural Code which helped align Russia’s judicial system with that of the West

• HIV/AIDS Russia and the Ukraine are said to have the highest growth rates of HIV infection the world; it seems to be mostly due to IV drug use

• Industry Russia is one of the most industrialized nations of the former Soviet Union; years of very low investment, however, have left most industry antiquated and highly inefficient