Authoritarianism In Russia

Russia has built a strong, but stagnating economy on several natural resources to include the refinery and export of natural gas and oil. According to the Jim Picht (2014) exportation of natural gas and oil to Eastern Europe account for 70 percent of Russia’s exports and 53 percent of the government’s revenue. Along with exporting oil to Eastern Europe, Russia also exports too many countries to include China and Belarus. Europe fueled majority by Russian supplied natural gas and oil, the dependency of Europe’s need for this natural resource is the reason Russia’s economy is so strong. In 2014, when Russia decided to invade the neighboring country of Ukraine has led Europe to begin searching for other suppliers of their natural resources. If Europe finds other countries to supply the natural resources

The Russian state has been characterized by its strong heritage of powerful, autocratic leadership. This domination by small ruling elite has been seen throughout Russia's history and has transferred into its economic history. Throughout the Russian czarist period, to the legacy of seventy years of communism; Russia has been a country marked by strong central state planning, a strict command economy and an overall weak market infrastructure (Goldman, 2003). Self-interest, manipulation and corruption have all been present in the Russian economy, and have greatly helped the few as opposed to the many. To this day, Russia still struggles with creating a competitive and fair market.

In Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?, Karen Dawisha relates Russian President Vladmir Putin’s rise to power. She overarchingly claims that Putin is an authoritarian leader who has obstructed and even reverted Russia’s path of democratization, citing, amongst many factors that enabled his ascension, his “interlocking web of personal connections in which he was the linchpin” (100), money-laundering to tax havens and personal projects, and the complicity of the West. With copious research, journalistic interviews, legal documents, and even sporadic informational diagrams, it is evident why her book is so popular amongst scholars and history enthusiasts. Unfortunately however, in spite of the grand yet oftentimes substantiated claims she generates, a more subtle yet noteworthy assumption is made: that the state is a protector, as Olson proffered. She employs this theoretical underpinning from the beginning, though is not representative of Putin’s actual authoritarian regime.

Oligarchy as it is known in Aristotle’s politics; is a government run by a small group of people, ‘elites’. However, the oligarchy which this essay addresses is currently referred to in Russia as “a very wealthy and politically well-connected businessman...one who is the main owner of a conglomerate of enterprises and has close ties with the president” (Aslund and Dabrowski, 2007; 144). In the 1990s Russia’s economic reforms are said to have created the rise of a small group of oligarchs who gained an overwhelming amount of power and control. By 1997, this small group of previously unknown businessmen and bankers, often with gangster ties, had acquired control of many of the key parts of the Russian economy. Why did they emerge? It is argued by David Satter that three processes facilitated the emergence of the oligarchs. The first was hyperinflation and the social, economic and political consequences. The second was the process of privatisation, and finally the third was criminalisation (Satter, 2003). However, were these powerful oligarchs just a phase during the transition from Soviet to Post-Soviet Russia? Even with Putin’s efforts and declaration to distance the oligarchs from politics and power, and start a war against them exemplified by the Khodorkovsky affair, are oligarchs still significantly powerful in contemporary Russia? What is the role they play in Russia? It seems that the power of those original oligarchs of the 1990s has decreased or been concealed in

Corruption- The actual system is set up in a way that only elites and foreign companies working in Russia plunder public wealth to enrich themselves. These elites group receive some contracts or other kinds of favors in exchange of their loyalty.

Putin’s Reforms When Russia is spoken about, words that generally come to mind are corruption, communism, Stalin, and poverty. Most would not classify these words as positive, therefore Russia is generally not classified as a great country. This is mainly because of the current president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Ever since Putin came to power 1999, most of his reforms have had negative effects on Russia. After analyzing many of Putin’s reforms put in place in Russia, although a few have been suitable for Russia

In recent times, no one can take total power by force alone; you must offer something favorable to the people in order to obtain support. Unfortunately, there are some countries that follow a dictatorship system, which is a form of government that includes social and political power to ensure that the individual’s capability remains strong. Vladimir Putin is a contemporary dictator of Russia. His rebelliousness as a child has led him to his leadership. His cold-heartedness to his rivals and invasion towards countries has led to an opposition towards him. Vladimir Putin’s experience as a street thug led him to his leadership, which easily rose him to power: Not only has he committed crimes against humanity, but he has made groups of people and countries oppose him.

Russia’s economy is ranked 143rd freest in the 2015 index and has an economic score of 52.1. Russia has had gains in business freedom, freedom from corruption, property rights, government spending and a labor freedom that has been offset by declines in monetary freedom. In the Europe region, Russia is ranked 41st out of 43 countries, and its overall score is below the world average. Although Russia has had an increase in political and economic isolation, coupled with falling gas prices, its economic freedom score has increased by 1.6 points since 2011. A better outlook than what Greece has in their score. The declines in financial freedom and property rights have been the cause for the lack of overall progress

of Russia’s oil, has been 100 percent state-owned since its creation in 1992(Transneft, 2012).This response was part of the emergence of a broader state-capitalist model of political and economic development. Economically, this has involved increasing statecontrol over strategic sectors of the Russian economy beyond oil and gas, such as banking, electric power, the media, aviation, the automotive industry, machine- building (Pappe and Drankina, 2007b) and weapons trading (Rosoboronexport, 2012),in addition to already-existing state participation in telecoms (Rostelecom, 2012) andrailways (RZD, 2012).State control over strategic energy companies through formal ownership wasaugmented by the presence of state officials on the boards of these companies(Interfax, 2011) and by the development of legislation on strategic sectors and subsoiluse (Liuhto, 2008, p.2-6). This legislation restricted foreign ownership or control over companies or natural resources designated as strategic, or of federal importance.The economic aspects of this model of development coincided with the increasedcentralisation of political power and the establishment of what became known as the power vertical (Sukhov, 2008). Whilst a lack of space here prevents a deeper discussion of the political aspects of state capitalism during the Putin Presidency, itcan be argued that the economic and political aspects of Russia’s state capitalistmodel of

Historically, the ruble is one of Europe’s oldest currencies and has been in use since the 13th century. Over the past 100 years, the ruble has experienced two major economic crises and is on the brink of a third. The first crisis came after the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II and the establishment of the Soviet Union in the early 1920’s. Under the regimes of Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, and Mikhail Gorbachev the Soviet ruble was able to stay on par with the value of the USD, due in large part to enormous overvaluation. This fiscal negligence came to its’ boiling point in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. What followed was a decade of hyperinflation, widespread poverty, and loss of foreign investment. Although Vladimir Putin has managed to calm a great deal of economic despair that plagued the country in the 1990’s, recent trends suggest Russia is on the verge of another economic disaster. If the Russian ruble is continuously devalued due to Western and European Union (EU) sanctions, then Russian foreign policy would grow increasingly volatile and potentially result in escalated conflicts as Putin would grow increasingly desperate to reassert his authority.

During the Regression of Human Rights under the Putin Administration following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were many changes enacted to the Russian government that sought to reform (over time) the former Communist Soviet nation into a peaceful picture of Western Democracy. By the turn of the century Russia was beginning to demonstrate several signs that hinted at a healthy democracy was beginning to emerge. These signs included such promising practices as the public debate of policy issues, a healthy competition of political parties, a variety of opinions presented by the media, a strong community of regional governors, and an expanding community of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) (Russia 2005). Although many of these

The oil industry is one of great power that countries are invest in. Russia is one of the leading contenders in producing oil and exports the goods to various countries. With great resources comes great strength. Oil is of the utmost important to every country therefore, Russia has an upper hand in some respects. Moreover, the history behind the oil pipelines and how Russia connects to different countries allows for insight into the power they withhold politically and economically, and on the improvements that need to be made to continue growth in this industry.

3. Now it gives the idea that Putin's energy is very secure. Be that as it may, given the proceeded with shortcoming in oil costs and endorses from the worldwide group, the Russian economy may keep on being under impressive anxiety. Truth be told, in the year 2015 the Russian economy contracted by more than 3%. Unless the economy

Russia’s Return as a Superpower. There are concerns that Russia may once again “reassert itself militarily” (Wood 7). After the original fall of communism in 1991, Russia seemed to be on a path to democracy. Currently the notion of a democratic Russia seems to be fading as Russia “has been centralizing more and more power in the Kremlin” (Putin 2). Regional governors, who were once elected by the people, are now being appointed by Moscow.

It has always been my interest to understand the dynamics of how a country’s government are brought up into power. More specifically, how Russia has been able to stay as a Superpower throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. I began my interest in Russia when I learned as a child that my parents both fled their Soviet-ruled home countries to come to America. They tell me that by living there, it made them feel depressed and lonely since their homes were cut off from the rest of the world. They also tell me that because of their communist economies, they were unable to have a decent living that they have now. Bread lines were a real thing for them and it made them scared, trying to survive week by week on grain and chicken only. I am exaggerating their story somewhat, but if you look at how Russia treated their satellite nations, you would not be surprised to see poverty and hunger in the streets.