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The article considers Russia, focusing on Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin. It is noted that Putin is expected to be easily elected on March 4, 2012, in large part due to weak and divided opposition candidates. Public opinion polls indicating a decline in support for Putin and his United Russia political party, especially among older poor people, are discussed as indications of changes in political attitudes in Russia in favor of reforms to end political corruption.

The article reports on Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism in the north Caucasus region of Russia, which includes Dagestan, Chechnya, and Karachaevo-Cherkessia. Russian rule in the region is described as a lawless exercise in brutal tyranny and corruption. Local conflicts between the Salafiyah sect of Islamic fundamentalism and practitioners of the more traditional Sufi version of Islam are also analyzed.

Discusses how power is dispersed in Russia and the idea of pluralism. Topics of the Kremlin, the security services, big business, government ministries, prosecutors, the armed services, the Central Bank, and organized crime; Misuse of criminal law for political and commercial ends; Outlook for legal reform in the administration of President Putin; Need for a law on conflict of interest.

Discusses conditions in Russia in light of the March 2000 election of Vladimir Putin as president. Conditions in the Moscow airport as exemplary of conditions in the country; Poverty and decline in the standard of living; Population and birth rates; Political corruption, crime, and rule of law; Government control of media; War in Chechnya; Militarization of society; Foreign currency reserves; Inflation; Businesses and business governance; Obstacles to change.

The article reports on the demonstration against political corruption on national holiday in Moscow, Russia. Lead by Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, the protest is also intended for his campaign for the presidential election in 2018. The protesters want to stop the corruption of President Vladimir Putin and they want change for the country.

The article discusses Russian President Vladimir Putin and his reported opposition to political corruption in his country, focusing on the dismissal of Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov in October 2012 as part of Putin's anti-corruption campaign. An alleged embezzlement case involving Putin's Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov is also mentioned, along with an analysis of Putin's election to a third presidential term in Russia.

The article focuses on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his reluctance to pursue large-scale economic or political reforms. Topics include Russia's advance in the World Bank's business rankings, his commitment to fiscal discipline, and rumors of political corruption. Information is provided on the emigration of skilled youths from Russia.

The article focuses on the 2012 Russian presidential elections, in which former Russian President Vladimir Putin was reelected. Information is provided on the allegations of candidate preselection, vote-rigging, and falsified vote counting that marred the election. It is noted that widespread protests occurred after Putin was named the victor in the March 4 election.

The article discusses the rule of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Russia. Topics include his return to the Kremlin in 2012 after the rule of President Dmitry Medvedev, the lack of democracy in the transfer of power, questions of political legitimacy of Putin's government, and potential protest of the political corruption of Putin.

The author explains that Russian Federation Prime Minister Vladimir Putin intends to run for President of the Russian Federation in March of 2012, an office he held from 2000-2008. He explains Russia's system of consecutive term limits, noting that Putin could serve until 2024 if elected. The author suggests that Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev, in power since 2008, has merely been Putin's puppet. While Medvedev has talked about ending corruption in Russia, he hasn't done it.

The article focuses on President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia. Medvedev has called for reforms to modernize Russia's economy, as the country was severely affected by the global recession. However, he also remains loyal to his political patron, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is reluctant to deal with the political corruption of the semi-authoritarian government, one which Putin largely created.

The article reports on corruption in Russia, which seems to be getting worse. In the latest international "corruption perceptions index" produced by Transparency International (TI), Russia has fallen to rank alongside Niger, Sierra Leone and Albania. A recent survey by Indem, a Russian think-tank, found an enormous hike since 2001 in the number and size of bribes given by young men and their families to avoid conscription and in those paid to get into universities. Indem's most controversial finding was a surge in the volume of bribes paid by businesses, to a total amounting to more than double the federal budget. An exaggeration perhaps; but most businessmen confirm the deterioration. The difference now, says the boss of one building firm, is that bureaucrats take the cash, but don't then interpret the opaque regulations in the way they had promised--the most economically damaging kind of corruption, according to academic studies. Faced with a problem that it cannot credibly deny, the usual Kremlin approach is to say that it is not a problem for Russia alone. But Russian corruption has some peculiar characteristics. It is partly an age-old function of the country's size and poverty. Communism bequeathed little regard for private property or civic duty, and left big networks of patronage dating back to institutions such as the KGB. Next came wholesale privatisation amid weak regulation, and lots of oil money. An optimistic view is that these effects will wear off.

The article comments on Vladimir Putin and the outlook for a new cold war. The drama playing out in the streets of Ukraine in recent weeks has been gripping in its own terms. But its bigger significance for the West lies in Russia. As the tide moves towards a presidential election victory for the opposition leader, Victor Yushchenko, on December 26th, the efforts of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, to thwart him have looked ever more cack-handed. But they have also depressed those who still hoped that Mr Putin's Russia might move on to a path leading to political liberalism--and that he might prove an ally not a foe of the West. As if Russia's intervention in Ukraine were not enough, the Kremlin's anti-western rhetoric has also risen. In an excess of hypocrisy even by Soviet standards, Mr Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, have accused the West of meddling in Ukraine in order to destabilise the region. That Mr Putin is more of an autocrat than a democrat has been clear ever since he became Russia's president in 2000. The evidence that Mr Putin is more interested in reasserting state control over the economy than in pursuing economic liberalisation are making many pause once again. One of the least appealing features of Mr Putin's Russia has been a rising tide of corruption. Far from being a political and economic reformer who runs an admittedly flawed but still recognisable democracy, Mr Putin has become an obstacle to change who is in charge of an ill-managed autocracy.

The article considers the All Russia Popular Front, a political party created in Russia to support President Vladimir Putin. The party is examined as an effort by Putin to create an organization to replace the United Russia political party which has lost public support due to its reputation for political corruption.

The article analyzes a speech given by Russian president Vladimir Putin in December 2012. The author notes that the speech emphasized values, ideology, and character. Topics include Putin's disdain for the large-scale opposition that has developed against him, whom he considers ungrateful for Putin's achievements, his work against government corruption, including the sacking of defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov, and how lack of trust in the Russian state is hindering the country economically.

The article discusses the presidential and parliamentary elections of Russia in 2011. Topics include the efforts of the United Russia political party to win the elections, the political corruption to stop the campaign of Mikhail Prokhorov, a leader of the Right Cause party, and the political power of Vladislav Surkov, a Russian politician, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The article considers the sentencing of Russian financier Mikhail Khodorkovsky on charges of theft from the petroleum industry, focusing on aspects of his case which indicate the lack of rule of law and corruption in Russia's political system.

This article reports on the economy of Russia in 2010 and why it should not be criticised or underestimated by European or North American countries. The article discusses modernisation in Russia and its government in terms of political change, corruption, and legitimacy. Information is also provided on foreign relations between China and Russia.

The article discusses the corrupt and disingenuous methods employed by the Russian government to thwart opposition and protest groups. The article details how Russian officials detained leading opponents Garry Kasparov and Eduard Limonov so they would miss a flight to protest the Russia-European Union summit on May 18, 2007. The Russian government denies any involvement in disrupting protest movements.

The article reports on Islamic terrorists in Dagestan. Here, nearly everyone is Muslim, and public buildings are festooned with portraits of Imam Shamil, an anti-Russian leader in the 19th century. Yet Russia is what holds this republic together. Its people, comprising 34 ethnic groups, use Russian as their common language. The federal budget provides most local-government revenues. Few Dagestanis hesitate to profess loyalty to Moscow. Yet an insurgency appears to be growing fast. The list of incidents is endless. The authorities blame the violence on Islamic revolutionaries. Yet many believe that the true source of the trouble is neither international terrorists nor fundamentalists, but the corrupt security forces and government. The head of Dagestan's government since 1987 has been Magomedali Magomedov. Under his rule, Dagestan has also become a prime example of a government that acts as a family business. Officials insist that corruption is no worse than elsewhere in Russia, but admit it undercuts the fight against crime and terrorism. "

The article focuses on the war in Chechnya. In the biggest attack outside Chechnya since the 1999 incursion into Dagestan, which provoked Russia's second war in Chechnya, over 200 men attacked targets in Ingushetia, among them the interior ministry in Nazran. The attacks came a few weeks after a bomb in Grozny had killed Chechnya's Kremlin-imposed president, Akhmad Kadyrov. Ingushetia is where many Chechens fled from the war. Last year, to support its claim that Chechnya was normalising, the government began closing the camps and sending refugees "home", often under threat of violence or prosecution. According to Human Rights Watch, human- rights abuses are increasingly spreading across the border of Chechnya, among them killings and kidnappings by Russian and Chechen security forces. This week Russia's parliament was due to approve a law giving operational control of the army to the defence minister, leaving the generals in charge of strategy. This could help President Vladimir Putin's attempts to reform the army, and might be a step towards reducing the corruption that helps keep the Chechnya conflict going.

Discusses fighting among Russia's political leaders. How both sides in a Kremlin political battle depend on Russian President Vladimir Putin's support; Efforts to stifle corruption; Tactics used by the two sides in a political conflict.

Focuses on the corruption in Russia's court rooms, as of June, 2001. How prosecutors put pressure on the judges to convict; Suggestion that there are quotas to be filled; How Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to reform the justice system; How Putin will go about ending the corruption and limiting the influence of regional bosses; Outlook.

Focuses on the changes taking place in the government of Russia in 1999. Appointment of Sergei Stepashin as Prime Minister; Mikhail Zadornov named chief economics minister; Economic problems of corruption and monopolies; Questionable stability of the government.

Presents information on the efforts of Russian President Boris Yeltsin to oust Chief Public Prosecutor Yuri Skuratov. Skuratov's investigation into high-level corruption and capital flight; His efforts to have Boris Berezovsky, a former Yeltsin associate, arrested on corruption charges; Yeltsin's move to suspend Skuratov due to the fact that the prosecutor was under investigation himself; Communists urging Skuratov further.

This article speculates whether Russian President Boris Yeltsin should remain in office or not. On the surface, the signs are discouraging. The Foundation for the Support of Russia's First Elected President is trying to run its campaign from one room at the back of the town hail. It has managed to raise 80,000 roubles for him. Although nobody thinks that Yeltsin will have as much support as in 1991, he is expected to win enough in the referendum to give him the upper hand in the coming battle with parliament. Second, Yeltsin's opponents have appeared as disloyal intriguers. Vice-President Alexander Rutskoi, who has now joined speaker of the Parliament Ruslan Khasbulatov, as a leader of the opposition, has done little more than hurl unsubstantiated charges of corruption at the president's advisers.