Russia under Vladimir Putin

• 1. The Acting President's Promise

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  On the 31st of December 1999, the Russian Constitution placed Vladimir Putin in charge as acting president following Boris Yeltsin's resignation. A document titled Russia at the turn of the millennium appeared on the government website just before that date. Richard Sakwa noted that while members of Gref's Centre for Strategic Studies drafted the text, Putin added his own comments and corrections to it. The article warned that Russia faced a real threat of slipping down to second or third rank among world states within two hundred years. It argued that strong state power was necessary to unite a divided society without forcing civil accord upon citizens. The document called for improved economic efficiency and stable growth to ensure people's well-being. It emphasized that a country with poor health and education would never reach the peaks of world civilization. This text became the foundation for Putin's election platform later that year. He won the first round of the 2000 election with 52 percent of the votes cast.

• 2. Siloviki And State Capitalism

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  Olga Kryshtanovskaya conducted a sociological survey in 2004 that found siloviki made up 25 percent of the Russian political elite. Within Putin's inner circle of about twenty people, that percentage rose to 58 percent. These individuals included former colleagues from security services like the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Jason Bush reported in December 2006 that the Kremlin had taken control of some two dozen companies since 2004. These assets included oil interests from Sibneft and Yukos as well as banks and newspapers. Publicly owned companies now represented 38 percent of stock market capitalization, up from 22 percent just one year earlier. Andrey Illarionov, an advisor until 2005, described this group as a Corporation of Intelligence Service Collaborators. They seized key agencies including the Tax Service and the Ministry of Defense. Marriages between siloviki clans were encouraged according to an anonymous former KGB general cited by The Economist. This structure created an isolated caste where membership conferred power over others through weapons and state resources.

• 3. Oil Prices And Economic Growth

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  During his first term, the Russian economy grew by an average of seven percent annually due to a fivefold increase in oil and gas prices. By early 2008, Russia had become one of ten largest economies in the world. Marshall Goldman coined the term petrostate to describe this new socio-economic order. He argued that Putin's main contribution was creating national champions like Gazprom and Rosneft. However, lower oil prices and sanctions for Crimea led to recession and stagnation starting in 2015. Elvira Nabiullina stated in November 2016 that the previous model based on exporting raw materials was exhausted. Dmitriy Prokofiev believes the new economic model relies on cheap labor rather than capital-intensive technology. Since 2013, incomes of Russian residents have declined for eight consecutive years. The government froze the funded part of pensions from 2014 until at least the end of 2023. They also raised the retirement age and increased value added tax rates. This approach has been named People are new oil within the lexicon of Russian bureaucrats.

• 4. Foreign Agent Laws And Censorship

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  On the 21st of November 2012, Federal Law No.121-FZ entered into force regarding non-profit organizations performing functions of a foreign agent. Any organization receiving funding from foreign sources could be declared a foreign agent if it participated in political activity. Once registered, these groups faced additional audits and had to mark all statements with a disclosure. On the 1st of January 2013, the Dima Yakovlev Law created a list of citizens banned from entering Russia. It allowed the government to freeze assets and investments of those violating human rights. On the 3rd of June 2015, amendments gave the Prosecutor-General power to declare international organizations undesirable without any appeal procedure. Organizations that did not disband faced high fines and significant jail time for maintaining ties. On the 25th of November 2017, amendments required foreign juridical persons distributing materials to form a Russian entity or face designation as foreign media. On the 30th of December 2020, individuals could be declared foreign agents for their political activity including publications on social media. These individuals were deprived of the right to hold public office and had to make special reporting. Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code established criminal liability providing for imprisonment up to five years.

• 5. The Persecution Of Navalny

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  Protests began on the 23rd of January 2021 in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny who was detained upon arrival at Sheremetyevo Airport after treatment in Germany. On the first day, protests occurred in 198 towns and cities across Russia. More than 4000 protesters were detained on the 31st of January which set a record number in post-Soviet history. On the 2nd of February, Navalny's suspended sentence of three and a half years was replaced with a prison term. On the 21st of April 2021 another mass protest took place before authorities identified participants using facial recognition systems. Many protesters were dismissed from jobs and expelled from universities. On the 9th of June 2021, Vyacheslav Polyga upheld the administrative claim recognizing Anti-Corruption Foundation as an extremist organization. The case file was classified as state secret according to advocate Ilia Novikov. On the 25th of March 2022, the Second Cassation Ordinary Court rejected all cassation appeals and upheld lower court judgments. Proekt estimated that Russian authorities had prosecuted more than 116,000 activists in the previous six years by 2024.

• 6. NATO Expansion And Confrontation

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  On the 10th of February 2007, Putin delivered a confrontational speech in Munich accusing the West of breaking promises not to expand NATO into Eastern Europe. John Lough noted this statement was based on the myth that the Soviet Union received formal guarantees against enlargement at the end of the Cold War. In fact, no such guarantees existed. The article stated that Russia needed to be strong and competitive in harsh international competition for markets and investment. By 2022, Russia faced suspension from the United Nations Human Rights Council after 93 members voted for it due to gross violations. On the 1st of March 2022, authorities blocked access to Echo of Moscow and TV Rain which were Russia's last independent television stations. On the 4th of March 2022, Putin signed a bill introducing prison sentences up to fifteen years for publishing knowingly false information about the military. This led some media outlets to stop reporting on Ukraine operations. The foreign policy document approved in June 2000 listed ensuring reliable security as its main objective.