A look back on the Yeltsin era
The economic meltdown that occurred under Yeltsin in 1998, spurred on by the financial crisis in East Asia one year before [1], had taken an extraordinary toll on the lives of most Russians and destroyed their faith in the stability of their country. During Yeltsin's entire era the Russian economy was marked by selloffs of lucrative state-owned corporations, such as the energy giant Gazprom and Yukos, the major oil company. The Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption and gave way to a Mafioso rule that cost the state very dear and which actually ended up controlling the government.
Vladimir Putin elected President by a landslide
Putin, who was to begin with a protégé of Yeltsin, was elected president by a landslide in March 2000 (he was the acting president after Yeltsin resigned on Dec31, 1999) and he straight away set a radically different tone in the governing of the country. The country was now faced with a man who was determined to break the power of the mafia and get the Russian economy back on track. What remained to be seen was what his means to that end were going to be. He turned out to be ruthless and extremely set on total control of the various branches of government while increasing power for himself. He took control of the media to an extent that had not been seen since the Soviet era, renationalized the big companies which had been privatized during Yeltsin and transferred power from the regional to the federal level. This restructuring of the Russian government had its apotheosis in September of 2004, in Putin's second term in office, when regional governors, rather than being elected by the local people, were now instead to be appointed by the federal government.
The Russian legislative election on December 2
The Russian people see Putin as the 'savior of their country' and, with the enormous popularity he enjoys, one wonders why the recent election on December 2 had to be so thoroughly manipulated. The personal power grab by Putin and the general repression of the media seem to be forgotten by the Russian people next to the fact that Putin, on an international level, has gotten back the respect for their country, turned the economy around after the meltdown of 1998 and that with the wealth from oil and gas Russia now ranks as one of the big powers that have to be counted with in international forums. With an oil production that ranks as the second largest in the world – after Saudi Arabia – Russia is an energy superpower and an increasingly important counterweight to the Empire in the West.
The recent election was run as a personal referendum on Vladimir Putin and his party, United Russia, won 64 % of the vote. It has been described by European monitors though as being neither free nor fair and has been referred to as the 'stage-managed' Russian election. [2]
The West sees Putin as a dictator-to-be (if not already one that is) and it is a certainty that in the geopolitical power game, Russia (as well as China and other big powers) stands out as a powerful opponent to the United States, which still seems to see itself as the unipolar behemoth. In this power play, there is also the European Union, which does not play to the tune of Washington as faithfully as some media seem to make us believe. 'Old Europe' is just basically looking out for its own piece of the pie and is not about to risk losing its stake in the Middle East where they too have economic interests.
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