Russia Today

Basic Facts• Location: East of Europe

– Kaliningrad is in the middle of Europe– The area West of the Ural Mountains is considered part of the continent of

Europe• Population: 142.5 million (10th biggest in the world)• Government Type: Federation

– President and a Premier (or Prime Minister, who rules with the legislative branch)

• Economy: Market economy (based on supply and demand)• Leader: Medvedev and Putin• Development Status: Developing• Leading exporter of oil; also has many other natural resources like

natural gas, coal, and other minerals• Has nuclear weapons and was one of the top-two most powerful

countries in the world for almost 50 years after World War II

Vladmir Putin• Became president in 1999 when Boris Yeltsin resigned• Won the presidential election in 2000• Was re-elected in 2004• According to the Russian constitution, he was not allowed to run for

president again… so…• Dmitri Medvedev became president in 2008 and picked Putin to be his

Prime Minister (Prime Ministers take over if the president is unable to serve… Medvedev is seen as a puppet of Putin)

• Putin was elected for a third presidential term in 2012 (Medvedev first announced that he would step aside)

• Wasn’t a BAD president for Russia– the economy grew under him as president (early on) and he was seen as

strong against many of their internal problems– Legitimate accusations of fraud and corruption against him– Many say that they are ready to be done with Putin and move forward as a

country, but we’ll never know how many if they have elections they can’t trust– http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16122524

Challenges Faced By Russia

• Pollution and environmental problems– The biggest nuclear accident happened in the

former Soviet Union in 1986 at Chernobyl• Loss of natural resources, including Brain

Drain/negative population growth (-.47%)• Struggling economy• Government corruption• Ethnic Conflicts/Groups wanting independence

Ethnic Conflicts• Just like in Eastern Europe, Russia is made up of many different ethnic

groups• Some of them want independence from Russia and are willing to fight for it• Chechnya: Region in the Southwest of Russia

– Mostly Muslim – Wants independence from Russia– Russia doesn’t want to give independence because

• important oil and gas pipelines run through it• Russia would face uprisings from other ethnic groups if it set an example

• Ways Chechnya tries to get independence– Protests– Talk to the Russian government (they did get the ability to make more of their own

decisions as a region, which is called autonomy)– Some radical Chechen rebels resort to terrorism (from the Chechen point of view,

it’s the Russians that are being the terrorists)

Statement released during the Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis, 2002

• Every nation has the right to their fate. Russia has taken away this right from the Chechens and today we want to reclaim these rights, which Allah has given us, in the same way he has given it to other nations. Allah has given us the right of freedom and the right to choose our destiny. And the Russian occupiers have flooded our land with our children's blood. And we have longed for a just solution.

• People are unaware of the innocent who are dying in Chechnya: the sheikhs, the women, the children and the weak ones. And therefore, we have chosen this approach. This approach is for the freedom of the Chechen people and there is no difference in where we die, and therefore we have decided to die here, in Moscow. And we will take with us the lives of hundreds of sinners. If we die, others will come and follow us—our brothers and sisters who are willing to sacrifice their lives, in Allah's way, to liberate their nation. Our nationalists have died but people have said that they, the nationalists, are terrorists and criminals. But the truth is Russia is the true criminal.

Religion in Russia• Before the Soviet Union, the Eastern Orthodox (Christian) church

was the traditional church (49.7%)• The Soviet government discouraged religion and promoted

atheism, which is the belief that there no God (27.4% are non-religious)

• Islam is the second-largest religion in Russia; most live between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains and the Caucasus region (7.6%)

• Jewish people in Russia were persecuted, but the ones that remain live in communities of mostly Jewish people and still practice their religion (.7%)

• Buddhism and Hinduism are both practiced by less than 1% of the people

Islam