POLITICS IN RUSSIA
Political change in Russia during the last two decades
can be characterized as a struggle to establish
democratic institutions in a country with an
inheritance of authoritarianism. The transition to
democracy has not yielded effective governance,
economic progress, or popular satisfaction. It is
insecure and incomplete. In fact, President Vladimir
Putin, who is serving in his third Presidential term
after one term as Prime Minister resorted to
authoritarian tactics in his effort to control renegade
local officials, the rebel Chechnya Republic, and the
oligarchs. These strong armed tactics were further
evidenced by his annexation of Crimea and his
attempt to capture Eastern Ukraine. In response to
these recent events, President Obama issued an
executive order freezing the assets of Russian
officials responsible for the military intervention in
Ukraine.
When Dmitry Medvedev was elected President in
2008, he immediately appointed former President
Putin as Prime Minister and Putin pushed through
legislation that would lengthen the presidential term
from four to six years beginning in 2012 (Putin was
eligible to run again in 2012 and easily won the
election and Medvedev was appointed Prime
Minister). The two were able to maintain a working
relationship throughout Medvedev’s presidential
term, but cracks in their unity began to emerge over
speeches regarding Medvedev’s support of attacks on
behalf of rebels against Qaddafi’s Libyan
government, while Putin criticized UN infringement
of Libyan sovereignty in 2011 air strikes. It appears
that the rift between the President and Prime Minister
was not genuine as Medvedev decided not to run for
a second term, allowing Putin to run for President
without any effective competition.
Significant historical events
The Tsarist Regime that existed before the Soviet
Union was established was characterized by
autocracy, patrimonialism, and orthodoxy
exacerbated by inefficiency and ineffectiveness. The
empire came to an end and was briefly replaced by a
provisional government. The temporary democratic
government was eventually overthrown in 1917 with
the Russian Revolution led by Vladimir Ilyich
Lenin. The Bolsheviks, later named the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), promised to
institute Marxist-Leninism in a new socialist state.
Under a succession of leaders--Lenin, Stalin,
Khruschev, Breznev, Andropov, and Chernenko, the
country became increasingly characterized by
centralization of authority. The system allowed for no
'feedback' that could have corrected or ameliorated
problems and it eventually became dysfunctional.
By the time Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General
Secretary of the CPSU in 1985, the political system
of the USSR had grown top-heavy, unresponsive, and
muscle bound.
Reasons given for the system's failure include: (1)
overcentralization, (2) failure of the economic
system, (3) political rigidities and corruption, (4)
lack of systematic provision for transfer of power,
and (5) lack of transparency.
When Mikhail Gorbachev called for glasnost, other
democratic reforms, and perestroika, the people of
Russia expected a law governed state, pragmatic
economic changes, modernization and change to a
democratic, socialist system. What they got was rapid
change. In 1989, the countries of Eastern Europe
experienced popular revolution, Germany was
reunited and the Baltic states seceded from the union.
While Gorbachev permitted people to voice their
discontent without persecution, he failed to create
democratic institutions that were willing to address
their wants and demands, which weakened the
regime’s legitimacy. Gorbachev's reforms had
consequences he clearly had not anticipated and
when he was not seen to be sufficiently radical, Boris
Yeltsin called for even more rapid economic and
political transformation.
Under Gorbachev, a new office of president of the
USSR was established in 1990, chosen by the Soviet
Union’s Congress of People’s Deputies that selected
Gorbachev as President. In August 1991, a coup
attempt by communist hardliners to overthrow
Gorbachev was halted by Yeltsin; which prevented a
return to the anti-reformist hardline communists, but
contributed to the eventual demise of the USSR. In
December 1991, the USSR itself collapsed, and all 15
of its constituent republics became independent states
and formed a confederal alliance known as the
Commonwealth of Independent States (excluding
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). By then Boris
Yeltsin had established a state presidency in the
largest of the Soviet republics, Russia, where he was
elected president in June 1991 by direct popular vote.
The Commonwealth of Independent States has been
dominated by the Russian Federation ever since it
was created. In an effort to keep Ukraine within his
sphere of influence, Putin annexed Ukraine’s
province of Crimea fearing that Ukraine was being
pulled toward the European Union and away from the
CIS. Putin has further intervened in Ukraine by
supporting the anti-government protestors with armed
men in Eastern Ukraine who have taken over police
stations and other public buildings.
As President of the newly formed Russian Federation
in 1992, Yeltsin demanded that the legislature, the
Russian Congress of People's Deputies, grant him
extraordinary powers to carry out a program of
radical market-oriented economic reform (shock
therapy implemented by Prime Minister Gaidar).
Unfortunately, these reforms were not popular, and
led to severe economic dislocations.
Conflict between Yeltsin and the legislature grew so
intense that in 1993 Yeltsin dissolved the Communist
dominated legislature by force and asked Russians to
approve a referendum that created a new Russian
Constitution and simultaneously asked voters to
select their representatives in the newly formed
Duma (legislature’s lower house) that the
Constitution created.
Executive Branch
The 1993 Constitution gives the president wideranging powers, including
 the power to issue decrees equivalent to law,
 to appoint and remove the prime minister
(PM),
 dissolving parliament if they reject his third
choice for PM, and
 direct control over the agenda of the four
power ministries (Defense, Federal Security
Bureau, Internal Affairs, Foreign).
President Yeltsin's relations with the new legislature
(the bicameral Federal Assembly) was often difficult
(impeachment proceedings were initiated over his
actions in Chechnya), but were eventually resolved
by peaceful means.
The election of the President is based on the French
model with a two-ballot system. If voter turnout is
over 50% and a candidate receives over 50% on the
first ballot, then that candidate becomes President. If
no candidate receives a majority vote, than the top
two candidates compete against each other in a runoff election.
Interestingly, the 1993 Constitution eliminated the
position of Vice President, thus providing that the
prime minister be the first in line of succession to the
presidency. In fact, Putin ascended to the Presidency
when Yeltsin resigned on December 31, 1999. Three
months later, he won the first ballot election for
President in March 2000 and then won reelection in
2004. Putin’s hand-picked successor Medvedev won
the 2008 election as the candidate of Putin’s United
Russia party. Putin did not run in 2008 because of
the Constitutional limitation that presidents can not
serve more than two terms consecutively. Putin
positioned himself to stay in power by having
Medvedev appoint him as Prime Minister and as
expected, Putin ran for President in 2012, and won.
In all three of Putin’s electoral victories, people
questioned the legitimacy of votes that came from
Chechnya supporting Putin and questionable tactics
to pressure college students and state workers to vote
were used to ensure that the 50% voter turn-out
threshold would be met in 2004 and 2012. In
response to the Presidential election in 2012 and after
the Duma elections in December 2011, many people
protested the electoral results. Some commentators
labeled the protests as the Moscow Spring, in
reference to the Arab Spring of 2011 because many
of the protesters were middle-class, internet using
participants that were upset with Putin’s “managed”
democracy. People complained that during the
election for seats in the Duma (2011), Russia’s
electoral commission kicked out election observers
and falsified the count, especially in Moscow, which
voted overwhelmingly against the Kremlin’s United
Russia party. After the presidential election, which
Putin won with 64% of the vote over Communist
leader Zyuganov who had 19%, and Prokhorov, a
liberal business tycoon, who received 17%, Putin
gave a tearful speech in which he promised to
continue to fight for Russia and made no conciliatory
remarks towards those that opposed him.
Russia’s Federal Assembly
Yeltsin’s 1993 Constitution created a semipresidential system which is a unique combination of
United States, French, and Russian governmental
arrangements. The Federal Assembly has a
bicameral parliament: the State Duma, the lower
house which was elected in 2003 on the basis of
popular representation (225 Single member districts
and 225 Proportional Representation seats
determined by party lists with a 5% threshold) and
the Federation Council (FC), the upper house which
consists of two representatives from each of the 83
regions (for a total of 166 seats).
In the 2007 Duma elections, new electoral reforms
introduced by Putin made all 450 seats chosen by
proportional representation with a 7% threshold
which ensured that Putin’s United Russian Party
would have a majority (70%) in the Duma and
effectively eliminated many minor parties ability to
win seats due to the increased threshold. Also, Duma
terms were increased to five years after the 2011
election, thus, the next Duma elections will be held in
2016.
In 2013, Putin proposed returning back to the parallel
system of independent candidates and Party lists for
the 2016 election. This electoral change is expected,
but has not been officially implemented. Even
though Putin claims the electoral change would
create a fair and free democracy, most political
scientists argue that the change is meant to ensure the
maintenance of one-party rule by the United Russia
Party. Without name recognition and the resources
of a major party it will be difficult for independent
and opposition party candidates to win seats in the
single member system.
Previously, Putin also changed the make-up of the FC
by having the local elected leaders appoint
representatives to the FC, rather than having local
leaders serve in the FC part-time. One FC
representative is appointed from the local province’s
executive authority and the other representative is
appointed by the local province’s legislative branch.
The heads of the regional governments which are
indirectly appointed by the President also serve in a
parallel advisory body, the State Council, which the
president can consult with at-will to propose policies.
Another significant advisory committee that
influences the policy agenda is the Public Chamber,
which is in many ways similar to British Quangos.
The Public Chamber consists of 126 members from
the civic, professional, artistic, and other
nongovernmental organizations which deliberates on
matters of public policy and makes recommendations
to parliament and government on pending policies.
Both the State Council and Public Chamber are
quasi-legislative bodies that weaken the federal
assembly’s role.
The two-headed government which consists of a
President and Prime Minister has nearly sixty
ministries led by the prime minister. The President
maintains control of foreign policies and national
security with direct control over the power
ministries (Defense, Foreign, Internal Affairs, and
Federal Security Bureau), while the Prime Minister
is in charge of domestic, economic, and social
policies. The President also is in charge of the
Security Council which consists of a permanent
secretary, the heads of the power ministries, and
other security-related agencies, the prime minister,
and the chairs of the two chambers of the Federal
Assembly. As President, Putin used the Security
Council to formulate policy proposals on issues
dealing with organization of the executive branch, in
addition to its expected foreign and defense policy
proposals. Remember, the President also consults
with the State Council and the Public Chamber for
policy proposals.
Judicial Branch
One of the major problems of the Russian Federation
has been the lack of development and
institutionalization of a ‘law-governed’ state.
Russia’s legal system traditionally vested a great deal
of power in the procuracy, which was considered the
most prestigious branch of the legal system. It is
comparable to the system of federal and state
prosecuting attorneys in the US and is charged with
fighting crime, corruption, and abuses of power in the
bureaucracy. On paper, it is independent of the
executive; however, the president names the
procurator-general and informally supervises any
politically significant cases. Furthermore, the
procuracy has been the major source of resistance to
the introduction of a jury trial system because they
believe it would lower their conviction rates.
Although not an essential feature of democracy, it
supports democratic values in participation and
transparency.
The Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, and
the Supreme Court of Arbitration contribute to the
institutionalization of a legal society. Unfortunately,
pay and training for judges is very poor, resulting in
corruption. This is further compounded by the fact
that Russians rely on bribes, personal connections
(patron-client networks), or force, rather than the rule
of law.
The constitution provides for judicial review by a
Constitutional Court whose members are nominated
by the president and subject to confirmation by the
Federation Council. It has used its power of judicial
review to overturn some laws passed by the Russian
Republics and has struck down several provisions of
the Russian Criminal Code that limited individual
rights. It has also consistently maintained the
supremacy of the federal constitution over regional
governments. However, the court has been reluctant
to challenge the authority of the President. Since
Putin took over the reins of government in 2000, the
court has avoided crossing the president. In an effort
to ensure that the courts didn’t challenge presidential
authority, Putin moved the court to St. Petersburg in
2008 in an effort to marginalize the institution by
physically keeping it far away from governing bodies
in Moscow.
Political Culture
Through time, over two revolutions and two major
wars, the political culture of Russia has been
characterized by a gulf between state and society.
There has been a contradiction in that there has been
a belief in democratic values yet consistent
dissatisfaction with democratic structures and low
levels of confidence in political institutions. Russians
tend to place a high value on democracy, but have
low levels of confidence in the present regime.
However, Putin continues to maintain a high public
opinion approval, despite his attacks on civil liberties,
efforts to marginalize the oligarchs (Gusinsky,
Berezovsky, and Khodorkovsky), and strong-arm
tactics in Chechnya, exemplifying that Russians are
more concerned about stability than democracy. The
most important factors include generational change,
rising educational levels, urbanization and
industrialization, and resurgent nationalism. There
is a high level of public frustration, which generally
accompanies high levels of expectations.
Political recruitment for the old Soviet regime
stressed appearances of collective involvement.
However, participation was largely symbolic and
formal. Real participation was a potential threat.
Voting levels were high but as races were
uncontested, they gave the appearance of mass
support while maintaining party control. Recently,
mass participation seems to ebb and flow with
popular frustration and generally reflects support for
the democratic system but dissatisfaction with policy.
Strikes and protests continue. Recruitment within the
bureaucracy exemplifies an elitist institution, which
in some ways is an adaptation of the former
nomenklatura (political recruitment within the
Soviet Union that was regulated and controlled by the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union).
Interest groups are formed around labor,
professional unions, youth and student groups,
women and veterans. Since 1991, there has been a
perceptible change from statist to pluralist interest
group formation. These may represent economic
interests, criminal groups, business groups, or
regional organizations. There is a potential for the
development of corporatist institutions.
Due to economic uncertainty caused by the transition
from a command to a market economy, interest
groups representing civil servants and other laborers
have taken to the streets in protest. Some 92 percent
of strikes in 1994 and 1995 were by teachers
protesting unpaid wages, which encouraged more
strikes organized for miners, railroad workers, and
others. This has led to the formation of a major trade
union federation--FITUR.
At the beginning of his administration, Putin’s public
approval rating increased due to his ability to ensure
that civil servants and pensioners receive their money
on time. However, Putin’s popularity waned toward
the end of his 2nd term due to his attempt to reform
social security benefits to veterans and the elderly by
replacing free services with cash payments. Putin
was forced to increase the amount of cash payments
and return some free services after spontaneous
protests erupted when the social security reform was
first enacted.
The changing patterns of interest articulation are
evidenced by the formation of new economic groups
such as new entrepreneurs, commercial bankers,
private farmers and others interested in protecting
rights of property and commerce. Others include
former managers of state-owned enterprises,
organized labor, consumer organizations, local and
city governmental officials, and an estimated 50,000
non-governmental organizations.
Russian Political parties
Political parties may be based on specific interest
group organization and objectives. They may
represent single interest, occupational groups or be
ideological in focus. Freer elections in the 1990s
created a stimulus to political party organization that
represented the possibility of legislation on specific
issues.
Political parties generally breakdown into the
following categories: democratic (Russia’s Choice
and Yabloko), centrists (Women of Russia)
nationalists (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia),
leftists (Communist Party of Russia and the Agrarian
Party) and parties in power (United Russia and its
allies). The opposition parties consist of leftist and
nationalist parties. The Communist Party of the
Russian Federation (CPRF) led by Gennadii
Ziuganov (received 17.7% of the 2008 Presidential
vote) has seen its support diminish after initially
controlling a plurality of seats in the State Duma in
the 1990s. Likewise, the Liberal Democratic Party
(extreme nationalists) led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky
(received 9.3% of the 2008 Presidential vote) was at
one time considered a threat to Yeltsin, but was
unable to garner enough support to challenge Putin or
Medvedev for the presidency. On the other end of
the spectrum, democratic parties such as Yabloko
and Russia’s Choice have received fewer and fewer
seats in the legislature due to the disillusionment of
economic reforms that benefited the oligarchs and
Yeltsin’s family. In 2011, the Patriots of Russia
Party was created to take away votes from opposition
parties and prevent them from reaching the 7%
threshold.
Political Party reform
There are numerous political parties that exist at the
local and national level, which spurred Putin to
introduce political party reform. Currently, parties
must be registered, which requires membership of at
least 10,000 members and functioning party branches
in a majority of the 83 regions of Russia. Major
parties include: Liberal Democratic Party of Russia,
Communist Party of the Russian Federation,
Agrarian, Russia's Democratic Choice, and Women
of Russia (which has also lost tremendous support
from 8.3% of the 1993 vote to not having any
significant percentage in 2007).
The Unity Party was created and later joined with
All Fatherland Russia creating the United Russia
Party to bolster support for Putin’s policies in the
State Duma. After the 2003 parliamentary elections,
the United Russia Party secured a majority of seats in
the Duma, which dramatically strengthened the
power of Putin. Interestingly, neither Yeltsin nor
Putin initially affiliated themselves with any one
political party; however, when Putin became prime
minister he was considered the leader of the United
Russia Party.
In the 2011 regional/local elections, a new party
emerged called the Patriots of Russia which
amassed 8% of the vote. Many skeptics belief that
the party was created by the Kremlin to act as a
spoiler for the Communist and democratic parties to
prevent them from winning seats in the upcoming
December 2011 parliamentary elections.
Current problems facing Russia
What about the future? Will Russia continue to move
towards democracy or suffer irrevocable reverses? It
is commonly assumed that Russia has a good chance
at democracy--better than at any time in history.
However, Putin, a former KGB official, fostered
stronger ties with the siloviki (former KGB members)
while he was President and he gravitated toward
more dictatorial measures than expansive democratic
reforms. In fact, many political scientists label the
Russian Federation as an illiberal democracy which
is exemplified by a system in which leaders and
lawmakers are elected by the people, but tend to be
corrupt and often do not respect the law.
President Putin’s dictatorial tendencies were
evidenced by the following:
(1) the military fighting the resistance of Muslim
rebels in Chechnya and having a Kremlinwritten Constitution for Chechnya approved
by a questionable referendum
(2) The indirect elimination of all independent
media outlets (media moguls Berezovsky
(who died in 2013 in London) and Gusinsky
were harassed by government officials and
eventually succumbed to government control
of their news agencies by selling them to
Gazprom Media),
(3) the arrest of Yukos Oil oligarch Mikhail
Khodorkovsky (who was released in
December 2013 just before the Sochi
Olympics) over tax violations and the 2010
questionable extension of his sentence (many
claim, however, he was arrested because he
was considered a threat to the government for
supporting opposition parties and possibly
considering a run for President),
(4) the creation of seven prefects to oversee
locally elected leaders in the 89 (now 83)
federal regions to ensure they do not ignore
or nullify federal policies,
(5) the ability of the president to fire regional
presidents (governors) with approval by a
judge for violating federal laws, and
(6) the attacks against media outlets that criticize
Putin’s rule as exemplified by Dozhd that has
been dropped by many Russian cable
companies for its critical coverage of the
Kremlin and the passage of a new law which
allows Russian authorities to block internet
sites without a court order on the grounds of
vaguely defined “extremism”.
Just before the 2004 presidential election, Putin
removed Prime Minister Kasyanov (who was
considering a run for President) and replaced him
with an unknown technocrat named Mikhail Fradkov,
which helped Putin win the election on the first ballot
with 71% of the vote. Kasyanov was considered a
friend of the oligarchs and one of the last remnants of
Yeltsin’s “family” in the administration. In 2008,
Putin’s handpicked successor, Medvedev won the
Presidential election on the first ballot with 70.2% of
the vote and immediately thereafter, Medvedev
selected Putin as the Prime Minister. Also,
Medvedev introduced legislation that passed
increasing the presidential term from four to six years
beginning in 2012.
Ethnic tension
Initially, the attacks on 9/11/01 allowed Putin to
expand authoritarian control over Russia without
scrutiny from the international community. Demands
of the Muslim rebels in Chechnya for more
autonomy continue to be a major source of ethnic
conflict and violence in Russia. Rebels have resorted
to terrorist attacks, such as the hostage crisis in a
Moscow theater that resulted in deaths of both
patrons and rebels when the military used gas to
expel the rebels, the surprise attack in 2004 at a
Beslan school resulting in the deaths of numerous
children, and the recruitment of Chechen rebel
widows to become suicide bombers (black widows)
in public places and planes. More recently,
Moscow’s busiest airport suffered from a male
suicide bomber that killed 35 people and injured
more than 100 in 2011. This attack came just a few
months after two black widow suicide bombers blew
themselves up at a Moscow train station, killing 40
people.
Terrorist activity motivated by Muslim extremists
spread to the US in 2013 as the brothers responsible
for detonating two bombs at the finish line of the
Boston Marathon had ties to Muslim extremists in
Chechnya and Dagestan. Russian authorities warned
the US about their ties to Muslim extremists in an
effort to cooperate with America’s war on terror.
While Putin appears to support the investigation, his
response to the Magnitsky Act (discussed below), his
annexation of Crimea, and his lack of support for US
President Bush’s preemptive strike in Iraq negatively
affected Russo-US relations.
Conflict with the West
Towards the end of his second term, Putin attempted
to influence events in Georgia (rose revolution) and
Ukraine (orange revolution). Fearing that reformers
in these countries would seek assistance from the
West (European Union), Putin supported the
repressive rulers in both countries, sometimes in
surreptitious ways (possibly poisoning Ukrainian
oppositionist reformer Yushchenko), but to no avail
since the oppositionists secured control of both
countries.
In 2013, tension between the US and USSR
intensified due to the US’s passage of the Magnitsky
Act which placed sanctions on Russian officials
involved in human rights abuses. Sergei Magnitsky
was a 37-year-old lawyer who was beaten, deprived
of vital medical attention, and left to die in a Russian
prison nearly a year after uncovering a massive fraud
allegedly committed by Russian officials to the tune
of $230 million. In response to the Magnitsky Act,
Russia banned Americans from adopting Russian
children. In April 2013, Congress published a list of
Russian citizens that were banned from entering the
US and the Russian Duma responded in kind.
In anticipation of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Putin did
his best to improve his image by releasing former oil
oligarch Khodorkovsky and members of a feminist
punk rock group that were imprisoned for a
sacrilegious performance in the Cathedral of Christ
Church in Moscow. However, his strong armed
tactics in Ukraine, his censorship of Russian media,
and the anti-gay legislation that outlawed
“propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”
among minors contributed to protests and criticisms
that were rampant throughout the duration of the
2014 Sochi Olympics.
More recently, Putin denied fomenting a rebellion in
Crimea and Eastern Ukraine while proof has come to
light that the takeover of public buildings in Eastern
Ukraine has the hallmarks of a Russian operation.
Men have appeared in unmarked uniforms as they did
in the run up to the annexation of Crimea in March
2014, roadblocks sprung up, and Pro-Russian forces
now control the two main roads from Kiev to the east
as of April 2014.