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The article focuses on Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and the creation of Wagner Group, a private military company. Topics include Putin's comparison of the first post-Soviet decade to the time of troubles; Wagner's role as mercenaries; and funding sources and the deterioration of Russia's stability.

The author discusses the important role to be played by the young elite in Russia's political and economic stage as the country faces another term under its President Vladimir Putin. The characteristics of the Russians who are part of a new generation of elite who share the European values of former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev are described. The author also analyzes the result of the presidential election on March 18, 2018 which he believes reflected the status quo.

The article offers information on the return of Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption activist to face Vladimir Putin as he had fallen into a coma after being poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent, and was evacuated to Germany for treatment. It discusses that by walking back into the lion's den he is hoping to help the Russian public to jettison that fear; and mentions that to imprison Navalny now would be to turn him into Nelson Mandela figure.

The article offers information on the jailing of Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption activist. It discusses that Navalny is risking his freedom and his life to stand up to a brutal, crooked regime, and his conviction has plunged Russia to a new nadir of lawlessness; and mentions that the prosecutors have levelled a series of trumped-up criminal charges against him.

The article focuses on the resurgence of the Communist Party as an opposition group in Russian politics in 2021. It mentions the preference of Russian Democrats for Communist politicians. The Communists won 19% of the vote despite the alleged election rigging in September due in part to the smart voting strategy of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Also noted is the use of the Communist Party by young politicians as a platform for their left-wing agenda.

The article discusses the career of the Russian Defence Minister and former leader of the Soviet Union Ministry of Emergency Situations (MChS) Sergei Shoigu, with a particular focus on his involvement in managing Russian and Soviet emergencies. An overview of his relationship Russian President Vladimir Putin is provided. Russia's military policies under Shoigu, including the Russia invasion of Crimea, Ukraine, are discussed.

The article focuses on the results of the Russian general election held in September 2021. Topics discussed include the victory of the political party United Russia despite polls showing a decline in its popularity to less than 30% and record low voter turnout, tactics employed by United Russia to win such as banning opposition politics, removing independent observers and creating an electronic voting platform, and alleged changes made to the publicized results to favor the party.

The article focuses on politics in Russia in 2007. Particular attention is given to the leadership of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the policies of his administration, and Russia's place as an international presence. The author reports that political power in Russia now lies with the FSB, the KGB's successor. The KGB is a Russian mafia organization. Article topics include Putin's ascension into the Kremlin, the recovery of Russian culture, and the mentality of the old KGB.

The article discusses Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the stage to stay on as Russia's president till 2036. It mentions that Putin has failed to do enough to diversify Russia away from oil and gas. It also mentions that the deep-rooted corruption and a lack of competition have hobbled the prospects for growth in Russia.

The article offers information on how the Kremlin outwitted Amnesty International, an international non-governmental organization with its headquarters in the Great Britain focused on human rights. It discusses the struggle to convict Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, in the court of public opinion has received a boost from an unlikely source which is Amnesty International; and mentions that Amnesty was flooded by identical complaints about Navalny from "concerned citizens."

Discusses how the lack of political reform to support economic reforms in Russia could lead to another autocratic government instead of a working democracy. Elections not being held between competing parties; Instability of parliament; Why the parliament cannot govern; Need for a new constitution to balance power between parliament and the president; More.

The article focuses on the political and economic conditions within Russia in 2014. Topics include the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, corruption in the country, and the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Topics include the continued violence in Ukraine, Putin's efforts to create an Eurasian Union, and the legacy of the Soviet Union in Russia.

The article explores the Russian government's attempts to gain control over social media through legislation, intimidation and new surveillance infrastructure. It criticizes the administration of President Vladimir Putin for using social media as a tool for propaganda and repression. The role of social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube in Russian politics is discussed.

The article provides a political outlook for Russia in 2019. Some of President Vladimir Putin's achievements from 2012 to 2018 are discussed including the annexation of Crimea. The article analyzes the approval and trust ratings of Putin since his re-election in March 2018 and the reasons for the drop in September such as the government proposal to raise the retirement age for both men and women. Also mentioned are the pessimism about the country's direction and stagnate economy.

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 focuses on the Russian Federation's governmental structure from 1991 to 2011 and the growing cynicism of the Russian people to their government. It states that prime minister Vladimir Putin was recently booed by Russians at polling stations and during street protests concerning alleged voting irregularities in December 2011. It talks about how Putin helped rebuild Russia when he succeeded President Boris Yeltsin and mentions the slow loss of freedom under Putin's rule.

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.

This article reports on Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in 2010. The article discusses corruption and violence in the Russian political system and whether its problems can be solved with the system as it is. Information is provided on the Yukos oil company and its former principle shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The article examines economic conditions in Russia. The global financial crisis and the decline in petroleum prices have brought boom conditions of the early 2000s to a sudden end. Structural weaknesses are prevalent and include income inequality, an almost total lack of foreign investment, and the dominant role of large, politically powerful businesses with close ties to the government.

The article discusses the political conditions in Russia and compares Russia to its predecessor, the Soviet Union. Details about the role played by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Russian politics and Russia's foreign policy are provided. The differences between social conditions in the Soviet Union and Russia and the anti-Americanism in Russia are also explored.

The article focuses on Russia's relations with Georgia in the aftermath of their August, 2008 war. President Dmitry Medvedev has recognized the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. Analysts state that while the war was politically popular, it could stir separatist sentiments in the regions of the Caucasus that are Russian territory.

The author comments on the intelligentsia in Russia and their apparent lack of activity. The author notes that since the 2008 death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was outspoken against the government, the intelligentsia has been uncritical. He claims that the lack of opposition from Russian intelligentsia, along with former Russian President Vladimir Putin, are in part responsible for the increasing authoritarianism in Russia.

This article examines the economic conditions of Russia and the economic policies of its president, Vladimir Putin as he prepares to leave office. A country that almost went bust ten years ago now boasts a $1.3 trillion economy, foreign-currency reserves of nearly $480 billion and a $144 billion stabilisation fund for surplus oil and gas revenue. Annual growth of real incomes has been in double digits, GDP per head has risen from less than $2,000 in 1998 to $9,000 in 2008.

The article discusses the impact of Russian local elections on September 6, 2019 on the administration of President Vladimir Putin. The ruling party United Russia had lost many seats in the elections. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny asked his supporters to vote for whichever candidate was best placed to defeat the ruling party.

The article discusses the European Union's poor relations with Russia as of June 25, 2005. For most of the past 500 years, the idea of "Europe" has served to define a shifting huddle of western countries seeking to distinguish themselves from two great Eurasian powers in the east: the Turks and the Russians. Now both Turkey and Russia think that they should be seen as part of Europe too. And Europe, as represented by the European Union, more or less agrees. The idea is pleasing, but the implications are perplexing. Russia does not seriously want to join the Union, mainly because, like America and China, it sees itself as a country too great to accept constraints on its sovereignty. But at the same time Russia hates the thought of being excluded from anything. Ideally, it would like a special relationship giving it visa-free travel in EU countries; generous access to the single market through what it calls the "Common European Economic Space", a loosely defined agenda of trade and market policies; and a voice but not a vote in EU policymaking, of the kind it already has in NATO affairs. But for the moment, to judge from the way Russian President Vladimir Putin's second term has gone so far, Russia is moving in the opposite direction, towards increased authoritarianism. The EU would be foolish to institutionalise closer ties while there is any risk that Russia will go on moving in this direction.

The article focuses on Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian oligarch who incurred the wrath of President Vladimir Putin and was on trial in Moscow for fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement and running a criminal organisation. Mr Khodorkovsky and his associates acquired a majority stake in Yukos, which until recently was Russia's premier oil company. They got it in the gigantic scam known as "loans-for-shares". Probably there was no single motive for destroying Mr Khodorkovsky. One that seems to have emerged along the way is the renationalisation of Yukos--and thus the strengthening of the government's control over the country's energy sector. Mr Putin said repeatedly that there would be no renationalisation of privatised firms on his watch. But by freezing the company's bank accounts and setting impossible deadlines, the tax authorities and courts ensured that Yukos's tax bills were unpayable. Last December, in a transaction surreal even by Russian standards, Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos's main production arm, was forcibly sold in a rigged auction. The charges in Mr Khodorkovsky's 11-month trial do not centre on the "loans-for-shares" rip-off that made him a multi-billionaire. They focus on the allegedly fraudulent part-privatisation in 1994 of Apatit, a fertiliser company, and of another firm, plus personal tax evasion, embezzlement of Apatit's profits through a transfer-pricing scheme, and his leading of an "organised criminal group". Mr Khodorkovsky's defence has been that he was not personally responsible for the alleged crimes, or that the actions involved were not in fact illegal. He and his partners say that they turned Apatit from a failing company into a going concern, and that the problems over its acquisition have already been addressed in a civil suit.

This article focuses on the destabilization of the north Caucasus and what it means for the future of Russia. In any other European country, the carnage would have caused horror. But ten years of war in Chechnya have inured most Russians to the fates of desperadoes such as the obscure Islamist group that two weeks ago holed up in an apartment in Nalchik, the capital of the north Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. A three-day siege ended bloodily: the apartment was gutted, and its seven occupants, alleged perpetrators of a murderous attack on a government agency in December, were all killed. Still, the location of this particular last stand was troubling. Kabardino-Balkaria had until recently been a patch of relative calm in Russia's poorest, angriest and most complex region. Not so long ago, observers worried that the conflict in Chechnya would spill across its borders. Now the question is not whether it will spread, but where the spreading will end. Even by Russian standards, the beautiful but benighted region's difficulties are extreme. But they are extreme versions of problems that afflict the country as a whole: poverty, fissiparousness and poor governance. And the explosive tendency of the north Caucasus may ultimately threaten the integrity of that whole.

The siloviki, or "power-people," infest the nightmares of those who fear that Russia is returning to authoritarianism. According to Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist at the Center for the Study of the Elites at the Russian Academy of Sciences, people with a military, intelligence or law-enforcement background make up around three-quarters of President Vladimir Putin's top officials, as against just 5 percent of Mikhail Gorbachev's Politburo. Kryshtanovskaya classifies Mikhail Fradkov, the new prime minister, as a "hidden silovik": there are tell-tale hints of some KGB training in his youth (a brief gap in his biography, an early diplomatic post), and he was a protégé of Sergei Ivanov, Putin's defence minister. Some order after the chaos of the President Boris Yeltsin years was certainly needed. But the new structures do more: they form an extensive intelligence-gathering network, which comes into its own at critical times such as elections. In October Putin, blithely ignoring a law that bans senior officials from electioneering, openly supported Valentina Matvienko, his chosen candidate for the governorship of Saint Petersburg. Some of the heaviest criticism of Putin concerns press freedom.

Russia's experiment with parliamentary democracy, never full-hearted, is more or less dead. The country's wellbeing now depends more than ever on Vladimir Putin. On December 7th, in the election for Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, had surprising results. Vladimir Zhirinovsky and his ultra-nationalist, ultra-misnamed Liberal Democrats nearly doubled their vote over the last election in 1999. Yabloko and the SPS, on the other hand, were wiped out overnight: both fell short of the 5% needed to get their party-list candidates into the Duma. The only non-surprise was that United Russia itself came first. Together with its single-mandate deputies, it has 222 seats, just shy of half the Duma. The Duma that results is a democrat's nightmare: three parties whose only ideologies are an almost slavish loyalty to President Vladimir Putin and varying degrees of nationalism, plus one made of the dregs of seven decades of totalitarian rule. Having spent his first term securing the state's finances with the help of soaring oil prices, and with his re-election next March in effect guaranteed, Putin is now ready to push reforms that will spread wealth into the rest of the economy, says Chris Weafer, the chief strategist at Alfa-Bank in Moscow. To some, all this confirms the suspicions that rather than being a flowering of democracy, the 1990s were just a momentary lapse of Russia's normal authoritarianism.

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.

Reports on democracy in Russia and the goals of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Thought that the institutions of politicians, courts, journalists, independent officials and trade unions are weak in comparison to other democracies; Need for government reform; Control of the media; Idea that Putin may become an authoritarian leader.

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 challenges facing Russian President Vladimir Putin who was re-inaugurated on May 7, 2018. Topics discussed include protest, lead by Alexei Navalny, in Moscow, key element in Putin's political edifice, and political goals of Putin including health care and education improvement and raising the living standards.

The article discusses the characteristics, attitudes and political views of the Puteens, the first generation of Russians who were born since Russian President Vladimir Putin came into power in 1999. Topics discussed include the Puteens' experience of economic prosperity, the role of the Internet on younger people's more positive views of the U.S. and the European Union, and challenge posed by opposition leader Alexei Navalny against Putin.

The article discusses the candidacy of reality television host Ksenia Sobchak for president of Russia in the March 2018 election, commenting on Sobchak's view that the election is more a performance than a political contest and on how she will distract from the opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The article reports on the deepening relationship of China and Russia. It relates the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow where he was given the Order of St. Andrew medallion by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moreover, it discusses the visit of Putin in Beijing to attend a parade celebrating China's victory in the war against Japan.

Suggests that a misunderstanding of money is at the root of Russia's financial problems as of late 1998. Suggestion that relations with money troubled the Communists from the moment they seized power in 1917; Discussion of the monetary history of Russia. INSET: Your money or your wife.

Discusses political and economic conditions in Russia for November of 1998 and what impact they have on the world as a whole. The attitude of those in the United States that develop the country's policy on Russia; The composition of the government in Russia under Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov reflecting a lean toward the left; Primakov's policies seen as unsound; How the political and economic culture of a country can change.

Discusses politics in Russia and the country's economic crisis in 1998. Factors shoring up the rouble; Suggestion that it is hard to see the government fulfilling its pledge to cut spending; The possibility that strikes in key sectors may spread; Viktor Chernomyrdin being a stabilizer until his removal in March 1998; Results from a poll as to who the people want to replace President Boris Yeltsin.

Considers the likely consequences of Russian President Boris Yeltsin's decision to fire his cabinet. His decision to appoint Sergei Kiriyenko as acting prime minister; How Yeltsin has attempted to explain this move; The possible influence of Victor Chernomyrdin's ambition to succeed Yeltsin; Speculation over the role of Boris Berezovsky.

Considers prospects for reform in Russia as of July 1997, focusing on the role of various national political figures. Change from about 18 months, when anti-reformer Gennady Zyuganov, a Communist, was the nation's most popular politician; General Alexander Lebed; Anatoly Chubais, President Boris Yeltsin's chief of staff; Boris Nemtsov; Vladimir Potanin, former head of Uneximbank; Other figures.

Illustrates Russian President Boris Yeltsin's shaky political position as the country's June 1996 presidential election looms. The battle on the Chechen border; The Communists winning the majority in the Russian Parliament in December 1995; Resignations from Yeltsin's cabinet; Economic woes.

Laments that the December 1995 election in Russia for the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, probably will not result in anything positive because their are too many contenders with few competent ideas for running Russia. How the rule of law remains weak under Russian President Boris Yeltsin; The ability of Duma to be an important legislative body; Description of Russia's political order; Competition for power.

Looks at the situation between the Russians and Chechens in 1995. Refusal of even the most liberal politicians in Russia publicly to contemplate independence for Chechnya; The military accord that Russia signed with Chechnya on July 23, 1995; The decline in fighting; Other aspects.

Takes a look at Russia after its invasion of Chechnya. Despair of the Russian people; The battle for power between generations; The bitter sense of humiliation; The period of reaction, with its three components--a return to religion and tsarism, restoration of the Soviet Union, and something alarmingly like Hitlerism.

Presents an overview of Russian Parliament's defenders. Alexander Rutskoi; Rusian Khasbulatov; Change of tactics in the middle of 1993 by the National Salvation Front, a coalition of die-hard communists and nationalists; Organization of several aggressive street demonstrations by the front, under Viktor Anpilov; Close links between the front and Russian Unity, the largest single parliamentary faction; More. INSET: The region's reactions.

Examines what Russia's parliamentary elections in December can do to enable Russia to get to a multi-party democracy 20 years from how and what else will remain to be done. True multi-party democracy in Russia needs three things: political organizations with clear aims and popular support, constitutionally separated power between executive and legislature and elections. No democratic nation-wide political parties to hold the country together; Essential underpinnings not there; Details.

Discusses the reasons behind Russian President Boris Yeltsin's dissolution of parliament. Reaction to his appearance on television in March, 1993, when he announced that he was assuming emergency powers; Clear that if Yeltsin didn't move against parliament, its attacks on his government would lead to anarchy; Yegor Gaidar brought back into the government as deputy prime minister by Yeltsin on September 18, 1993; Big reduction in the influence of the security ministry; More.