Russia. A History

On the eve of the new millennium Russia found itself mired in profound crisis. The most obvious problem was the economic collapse that ensued after it defaulted on loan repayment in August 1998, precipitating a downward, vertiginous economic spiral that erased the modest recovery begun in 1997. The economic turmoil had a devastating impact on society, from élites to disprivileged, and seemed to presage a whole new phase of debilitating economic regression. At home and abroad, Yeltsin’s policies appeared a total fiasco; even though much was beyond his control (such as the Asian financial crisis that turned global, with a devastating impact on Russia), Yeltsin bore the blame. He no longer enjoyed, or appeared to curry, the patronage of the West, which had exploited—in the view of many Russians, even facilitated—Russia’s demise as a great power. Amidst all these woes, the ‘strong presidency’ devolved into a weak executive; the president himself was not only politically but even physically debilitated (barely able to appear in public without the physical assistance of aides). Yeltsin also was losing his long-fought battle with the Duma, which imposed its own prime minister in September 1998, became increasingly aggressive, and even laid plans to impeach the unpopular president. Constitutionally deprived of the right to re-election, his approval rating reduced to single digits, ‘Tsar Boris’ was already a ‘lame duck’. By August 1999 he, and his regime, appeared ready to expire; it was precisely at that point that he named Vladimir Putin prime minister—the man who would soon become his anointed successor.

15. Rebuilding Russia

GREGORY L. FREEZE

THE first years of the twenty-first century witnessed a spectacular recovery in Russia—the rebuilding of central state power, a fast-paced economic boom, and reassertion of that country’s status as a major global power. Leading this renaissance was Vladimir Putin, former KGB officer and Boris Yeltsin’s anointed successor, a man determined to restore Russia to its ‘rightful’ place in the world. He benefited from the fortuitous surge in the global economy (which generated an insatiable demand for Russia’s abundant energy resources); that windfall enabled Putin not only to claim responsibility for reversing a decade of catastrophic economic decline but also to re-establish a centralized state. His two-term presidency (2000–8) thus brought both prosperity and power: high rates of economic growth, reassertion of Moscow’s control over subordinate regions, creation of more effective instruments of rule, and increased support for the military. In 2008 Putin, who opposed changing the constitutional two-term limit, ceded the presidency to his protégé Dmitrii Medvedev, but retained real power as prime minister. The Medvedev presidency, however, was soon confronted with a steep global recession that had devastating consequences for the Russian economy, which had remained so heavily dependent on energy exports. Globalization under Putin had returned Russia to the ranks of world powers, economic and political; the global financial crisis under Medvedev threatened to erase all the gains of the Putin era.

The End of the Yeltsin Era

Boris Yeltsin’s final months in office could hardly have been more tumultuous. After a band of Chechen commandos invaded the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan and inflicted heavy casualties, Yeltsin summarily dismissed the current prime minister Sergei Stepashin and appointed a virtual unknown, Vladimir Putin—the fifth prime minister in two years. Putin came from the former KGB, where he had served as an intelligence officer in East Germany, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, before resigning amidst the abortive coup of August 1991 (‘As soon as the coup began, I immediately decided which side I was on’) and joining the anti-coup forces led by Leningrad mayor Anatolii Sobchak. Putin subsequently became a top aide to Sobchak, with the specific charge of attracting foreign investment. After Sobchak lost re-election as mayor in 1996, Putin moved to Moscow to serve as an assistant to Pavel Borodin, a Yeltsin aide responsible for managing Kremlin properties. Putin quickly climbed the Kremlin hierarchy, appointed first as deputy chief of staff for relations with the subordinate regions (March 1997), next as director of the secret police, the FSB (July 1998), and finally as the head of the Security Council (March 1999). In August the Chechnya crisis and Stepashin’s dismissal catapulted Putin into the post of prime minister. Within a few weeks, after bombings (officially attributed to Chechen terrorists) in Moscow and other cities cost 310 lives, Putin persuaded Yeltsin to order federal forces to invade Chechnya and eradicate the source of the terrorism.