By Sahar Al-Gazzali
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Introduction
Russia today is almost unrecognizable from Russia in the 1990s. Fresh with hope and the promise of democracy, the 90s symbolized a decade of potential change. After paving the road to a more democratic Russia and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russians, young and old, rich and poor, were wondering what the future had in store for them. Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first president during the new period of the Russian Federation, would face controversy and hardship as he attempted to steer Russia to a more modern and democratic path. Yeltsin transformed Russia’s command economy into a capitalist market one by implementing policies such as economic shock therapy, the market exchange rate of the ruble, nationwide privatization, and the lifting of price controls.
However, one cannot bolster an entire nation to change in one decade or even one presidency. Yeltsin’s biggest adversaries were the Supreme Soviet, old Communists who retained their power and control in the government. Yeltsin would eventually resign in 1999 and hand the reins of power to a 46-year-old former KGB operative, Vladimir Putin. Putin was about to put his name in history books as a prolific leader who would shape Russia for the next 21 years. However, unknown to Russian citizens in 1999, Putin would become one of Russia’s wealthiest, authoritarian, and dangerous men of the 21st century. After ten years of Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika reform policies which opened the door for a more democratic Russia, Putin slowly but systematically dimmed the light on those policies and brought the nation back into the 20th century of economic and political unrest and nationalistic tendencies. Over 20 years, Putin has changed Russia through an iron fist of repression, corruption, and propaganda.
The term to describe this sliding scale of events and ideas over these 20 years has been coined Putinism. This term describes and embodies the changes that Russia has experienced through its movement away from democracy and modernization, and instead towards conservatism, nationalism and communist censorship. Throughout this paper, the aim will be to assess the critical tenets of Putinism and determine what a post-Putin Russia could look like through the lens of economics, internal politics, and the Russian people.
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