APCOGO russia

•àDifficult

• –Uncertainty
• regarding the regimes future

• –Abrupt
• change in leadership goals and style between Yeltsin and Putin also made it
• difficult to follow continuous threads in policy over the years.

• •Alternating
• between reform and authoritarianism.

• •How
• much central planning should be cut, how should market econ be handled.

• •Shock
• Therapy (Yeltsin) à
• small group of entrepreneurs running the econ

• •1997,
• bottom fell out  when the govt
• defaulted on $billions in debt 

• •Under
• SU, jobs were secure – now unemployment soared

• •improve
• infrastructure, innovation, investment, reducing the states role in the econ,
• reform tax system and banking sector, diversify economy

• –1997-2007,
• the econ steadily improved (privatized industries)

• –2008
• - econ took a blow when oil prices dropped.

• –Sept.
• 2008 – global econ crisis à many
• people are disillusioned with the new regime, and question the wisdom of
• current policy makers.

• –Today
• – fueled by huge oil and gas reserves and the corporation (mostly state run)
• that own them

• –Number
• of acts in terror in recent years

• •Beslan
• School Seige in
• 2004

• •Suicide
• bombing near a subway in Moscow, and bombs went off in 2 Russian planes almost
• simultaneously (before school)

• –Put
• responded with reform to boost security (tighter grip from central government
• would foil terrorists)

• –Also
• had political reform where top officials would not longer be directly elected,
• but selected by the president, then approved.

• •Attacks
• calmed for a few years, but reasserted themselves in the summer of 2009

• –1)
• public life defined by government

• –2)
• private life where people are free to make individual choices.

• •Country
• with strong civil society, people follow rules, operate with a degree of trust,
• generally have respectful dealings

• •Democracy
• and  capitalism depend on civil society
• for successful operation

• –19
• members appointed by the pres. and approved by the FC

• –SUPPOSED
• to make sure all laws and decrees are constitutional

• –Putin
• moved the court form Moscow to St. Petersburg

• –Constitutional
• Court created a Supreme Court

• final
• court of appeal. No power to challenge the constitutionality of laws and other
• official actions of the Leg. and Exec. bodies.

• attempted
• to build a judicial system that is not controlled by the executive à Constitutional Court
•  provided for a strong president, although the power was checked by popular election and lower house of legislature, required referendum of people to endorse it
• PROBLEM: most prosecutors and attorneys were trained under the Soviet legal system, so the judiciary currently suffers form a lack of expertise in carrying out the responsibilities outilined the Constitution
• –3 branch government, President, PM, the Duma, and a Constitutional Court 

• •450
• deputies

• •Proportional
• representation (since ‘07)

• •Passes
• Bills

• •Approves
• the budget

• •Confirms
• the pres.’s political appointments

• –These
• are limited powers (the Pres. can rule by decree)

• –Duma’s
• attempts to check the PM have failed.

• –Duma
• is controlled by Putin because his Party (United Russia) has most of the seats
• – it still wields some power in the drafting of legislation.

• –Duma
• debates the bills that must pass the deputies’ vote before they become laws.

• 2 members from each of the 89 federal administrative units
• –Their
• purpose is to represent regions, not the population.

• –Power
• to delay legislation (just like GB)

• –If
• FC rejects legislation, the Duma may override the FC with a 2/3 vote

• –Appoint the PM and Cabinet
• –Issuedecrees that have the force of law

•Pres.has a cabinet with a great deal of concentrated, centralized power.

• •Dumahas no power to censure the cabinet (except reject
• appointment of PM)

–Dissolvethe Duma

• •Structurewas established by Constitution of 1993
• –Presidential
• and Parliamentary Systems àHybrid  
• Semi-presidential system
• •Strongpresidency
• •Democraticchecks on executive power
• •PUTIN
• has commanded the executive branch (clearly dominating the other branches)
• Bicamerial legistlation

• –Pravda:Official newspaper of the SU, now a tabloid
• –Newspapers and TV stations are now privately owned (the state controls most of them though)
• –Reporting of the school seizure at Beslan in ‘04
• –Uncertain how much freedom of the press is ‘enjoyed’
• –Novaya Gazeta – 5violent deaths
• •Message: do not criticize the govt.

• –Controls more than ‘underworld crime’ like local businesses, natural resources, and banks
• –Thrive on pay offs from businesses (protection money), money laundering, deals they make with govt. officials.
• –Murdered: bankers, journalists, businessmen, Duma members
• –Threat to the survival of the new democracy

• –The state determines which groups have in put into policymaking 
• –Russia has well-established, state-owned holding companies in automobile and aircraft manufacturing, shipbuilding, nuclear power, diamonds, titanium, etc.
• Insider privatization (put in people loyal to Putin/govt

•  form of government in which a few people have the power, Yeltsin created one using family
• –Putin shows resistance to the Oligarchs
• •Berezovsky (and Gusinisky) now in exile
• •Mikhail Khodorvsky
• •Oligarchs have withdrawn from political activity (but Putin now has a narrower base support from econ leaders)

• –Yabloko
• •Pro-democracy
• •Grigori Yavlinski
• •Lost all seats in Duma in 2007
• –Union Right Forces
• •Free-market and privatization of industry
• •Lost all seats in Duma in 2007

• –Creation of super-districts
• –Removal of governors
• –Appointment of governors
• –Changes in the Federation Council
• –Elimination of single-member-district seats in the Duma
• –RESULT:
• The “Federation” is highly centralized.

• •Industrialization à increasing urban population
• •73% of Russians living in cities (primarily in Western Russia)
• •Wide econ divide between rural and urban people
• •City dwellers: more educated, in touch with Western culture

• •80% Russians
• •Sizeable numbers of Tatars, Ukrainians, Armenians, Chuvashes, Bashkis, Byelorussians, and Moldavians.
• •These cleavages determine the organization of the country into a “federation” with “autonomous regions,” republics, and provinces who’s borders are based on ethnicity.

• Geography
• Cultural orientation
• conflicting attutiudes towards the state

Openness. More discussion of political, social and economic issues as well as open criticism of the government. (Applauded by western nations – causing many problems for Gorb.)  After so many years of repression, people vented hostility toward the govenrment – encouraging revolt. Especially republics that watned independence from Soviet control.

• Most radical reform. Least successful reform.  Keep old soviet structure, and moderinze form within.  Transfer of many economic powers held by the central govt to private hadns and
• the market economy. Restructuring.

• –Denounced the purges
• –Secret Speech
• –deStalinization
• –Peaceful-coexistance
• –Failurein the Cuban Missile Crisis and most reforms didn’t appear to be working  by the early 60s.
• –Replacedby Leonid Brezhnev.