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->''"Everything the Soviets ever told us about Communism was a lie. Unfortunately, everything they told us about UsefulNotes/{{capitalism}} was true."''
-->-- '''Russian joke'''

In contemporary UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}, speech is a lot freer than it was, and private business not only exists, but ''thrives''. Competition between private companies can be intense and cutthroat. ''Literally'' cutthroat. Which is why private security is one of the most thriving industries. UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin and Dmitry Medvedev are seemingly popular, but often quite shady. They casually exchange presidency and prime-ministering.

While the UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRustingRockets retain the red star on their aircraft,[[note]]It's since added blue and white stripes on the outside[[/note]] the proposed new formal uniform is somewhat Tsarist looking, the old Slavic-colours flag is back and UsefulNotes/RedOctober is replaced with a somewhat controversial "National Unity Day" which takes place three days earlier.

Russia has a lot of problems to deal with. But you wouldn't know it from the way the fall of the USSR is usually portrayed. [[HappilyEverBefore If you cut the story short]] somewhere around late 1991, it looks like the whole StoryArc is over, the UsefulNotes/ColdWar has ended peacefully much to everyone's surprise, and the future looks bright for all involved. Flash forward two years and the economy has been crippled by corrupt privatizations, unemployment and poverty are running rampant, and the new, "democratic", [[VodkaDrunkenski constantly-intoxicated]] President deals with an unruly Parliament by sending in the tanks. Later, it gets worse.

One particular subtrope associated with The New Russia is the "Russian Nineties", which is {{the Theme Park Version}} of the Yeltsinist Russian Federation. Everyone except [[TheMafiya the gangsters]] and the oligarchs is starving poor, crime is rampant, the rubles have RidiculousExchangeRates, every city is a ViceCity, and the whole place is GrimDark. Basically, the [[TheGreatDepression Great Depression]]-era USA meets {{Ruritania}}. When {{speculative fiction}} extrapolated from this trend, it usually added {{Cyberpunk}} into the mix to create a picture of a failed state, where masses do starve in droves, and the whole place is overtly run as a confederacy of mob families. The Nineties ended with Putin coming to power and oil money coming to town, but they surely can make a [[NotQuiteDead comeback]] because of the worldwide financial crisis, which is what everyone was expecting in 2009-early 2010. The economy (the Russian one at least) has since recovered, but lots of previous problems persist regardless.

Russia now has a problem with TheMafiya, general corruption and a lack of money, although these three are being somewhat dealt with. Following the general decay of... everything during the nineties, the government has been hard-pressed to select which sectors were in the most urgent need of restructuring and/or financing, permitted by improving conditions. The defense sector, hydrocarbons extraction, and other "marketable" goods came first, but this, along with sudden exposure of the economy to the laws of supply and demand left the notoriously bloated and inefficient heavy industries inherited from the USSR to [[NoBudget fend for themselves]]. They either adapted to the situation by scraping up investments and selling abroad, or were merged into large state-owned conglomerates. But annual budgets are not limitless and other sectors were also set aside, resulting in crumbling public infrastructure (education was mostly unaffected, thankfully), under-employment, rampant corruption, and the problems of the USSR's frankly shoddy environmental record. Chechnya and terrorism remain a big issue as well. Neo-Nazism is also a serious problem (because anyone who killed 20 million Soviet citizens must have had a very good reason?), and various fascist gangs attack anyone who doesn't look right on the street. There are homeless war veterans, homeless college-degree holders, [[VodkaDrunkenski more alcoholism than ever before]], and a looming demographic crisis similar to that of Japan.

And as if all this weren't bad enough, the Russians, who spent over 75 years being CommieLand after spending several hundred years on the periphery of Europe, were thrown straight into the rawest sort of free-market capitalism with the fall of the USSR. They fell for all sorts of scams: one particularly notorious {{Ponzi}} Scheme, MMM, conned ''5 to 40 million Russians out of US $10 billion''. (Not 10 billion rubles, ''10 billion US dollars''.) (And now, as of 2011, [[OnlyMostlyDead it's back!]])

Thus, Russia is a pretty straightforward example of a CrapsackWorld right now; and Russians writing about these problems tend to AccentuateTheNegative and generally adhere to the far Cynical end of SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.

It is also worth noting that because of a lack of conscript discipline, the draft is a boogeyman for most Russian youth, because nowadays soldiers ruthlessly bully each other, and there are frequent murders or suicides among soldiers (possibly over 300 total by now).[[note]]This has been going on since the late sixties, though never in the generalized fashion experienced nowadays. The length of the military service has been reduced to attempt to deal with this.[[/note]] Because of these reasons, [[DraftDodging most of the youth try to get higher education]] - Russia has the second largest amount of universities in the world - but low funding and the legacy of Soviet preferences (if it's militarily relevant, it's a priority) meant that the education system is good at producing engineers and technical specialists, but fundamental researchers in all but [[{{Nanomachines}} a few prioritized disciplines]] have to join foreign faculties or organize themselves: only the country's main university is (low) in the world top 100.[[note]]Like everything about university rankings this is a subject of debate, but around 80 is where LMSU is at in most lists.[[/note]]

Right now Moscow is a [[CityNoir big and modern city]]. People there tend to have fair incomes but suffer from bad ecology, ethnic violence and many other problems; on the other hand, economic and social inequality is more striking in Moscow than anywhere else, since it has a really filthy but notoriously rich upper class, a tenuous middle class and lots of lower-class people. Research activities and newly profitable commercial developments such as electronics are also quite centralized there and, to a lower extent, in regional capitals. Since the policies of equal development of the USSR, which were over-focused and over-reliant on heavy industries, died with it, most rural parts of Russia are [[{{Ruritania}} backwards]] compared to the capital city. The most notable exceptions are St. Petersburg, which literally is a second capital, and the quickly developing, often oil-rich Siberian regions. In the countryside of southern (Central Asian) and western (European) Russia, there is no middle class to speak of, unemployment is a serious issue, corruption is overwhelmingly rampant, oligarchy is on its march and violence and crime are a common thing. In addition, [[RedshirtArmy the military is somewhat of a laughing stock]] due to the constant bickering and squabbling between design companies, production facilities, and [[InterserviceRivalry the generals for who gets]] [[NewTechIsNotCheap funding priority this year]], aside from regular incompetence and corruption. No wonder the nostalgic mood is very popular among older Russians.

Some political pundits like to compare the modern Russia to the last years of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia. Like Tsarist (Imperial) Russia, modern Russia has an economy dependent on selling raw natural resources such as natural gas or oil. Like in Imperial Russia, most industries are owned by foreign {{Mega Corp}}s or are government monopolies, the rest are under the control of the current president's pet cronies aka oligarchs. Putin, like Alexander III, reversed many liberal reforms of the previous reign, and Medvedev even looks like Nicholas II. Like in Imperial Russia, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing alarmingly fast. The pogroms (race riots) are back in full swing, although nowadays they target people from Caucasus, and Central Asians rather then Jews. The army is the same hapless RedshirtArmy, the police are the same authoritarian riot-stamping goons, the parliament is the same rubber-stamp body and even has the same name (State Duma) as the Tsarist parliament, and the radical opposition is slowly but stably growing. And, like Imperial Russia, it is confronted with a MortonsFork of external politics: ally itself with [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire an old superpower that rules the waves]] [[EagleLand and which was the enemy number one for a long time]], or [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany a new, rapidly developing, land-based]] [[UsefulNotes/{{China}} industrial powerhouse]]? What happens next? [[WorldWarThree Second]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne Imperialistic War]]? [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Second]] [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Civil War?]]

There are other commentators meanwhile who tend to think that Russia with its brand new "sovereign democracy" is, despite it all, in a position to remain a global power - and WildCard - for the immediate future. They argue that the current state of affairs under Putin is a response to what some Russians claim as the failure of Western liberal reforms in TheNineties. And if its recent activities in the Middle East are any indication, especially Syria, Georgia and Ukraine, it still seems premature to write the country off just yet. The events of the Crimean crisis of 2014 also lend credibility to the theory that the country is asserting its independence from the West and strengthening its militarist regime. But, the Putinist government still remains crypto-Tsarist/Soviet, strengthening religious fervor and encouraging every reactionary idea as well as reviving Soviet-era policies. And some of the ideologues rising up to power in the Russian-backed parts of Donbas in Ukraine, [[TheUnfettered unfettered]] by the international norms, openly claim succession to the [[UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRifles White Guard]] ideologies of the Russian Civil War, or the [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets Red Army]] of WWII fighting the new Ukrainian government. Even their breakaway state in eastern Ukraine was called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiya_%28confederation%29 Novorossiya]] for a few months, which literally translates to ''New Russia'' - an old Imperial term for the region revived by the invaders.

Is Russia, these days, crypto-Tsarist, or is it crypto-Soviet? Or is it possible to be both? The government is socially conservative and pretty much neo-Tsarist, but the people want the good old days of the USSR back. The days when Russia was reasonably well-off, and when it mattered in the world. This creates a domestic MortonsFork to go with the international one: the ruling class dreams of being neo-Tsarist [[FeudalOverlord feudal overlords]], and will fight tooth and nail against any revival of Soviet policies; the populace dreams of not being ruled by neo-Tsarist feudal overlords, and will fight tooth and nail ''for'' the revival of Soviet policies, or at least the economic ones. Alienating the elites means economic disaster, but alienating the populace means mass protests, probably on a broader scale than those of 2011 (which were mostly limited to the middle class). [[EnemyMine The one thing that the two sides agree on is that pro-Western liberals should be given the boot, and Russia should be de-Americanized]]; and so, this is the one thing that's consistently happening, while Putin attempts to balance between the people and the elites and prevent the return of another full-blown [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober civil war]] from breaking out.

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!!The New Russia in fiction

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', modern Russia is described as fallen a bit on hard times after the fall of the USSR. It doesn't stop him from wanting to [[TakeOverTheWorld make the world one with him]] ''at all.''
* ''Anime/BloodPlus'' has scenes set in contemporary Vladivostok.
* As does ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' season 2.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX''
** A bit of a running theme throughout the series is the drastic changes that Russia has undergone in the past several years. Including the downsizing of the military, the rapidly increasing crime rate, and the abandonment and subsequent collapse of Communism. Some of the Russian characters cope with it well, others? Well... [[WhyWereBummedCommunismFell not so much]].
* Luna Park by Kevin Baker does a good job showing it in the main character's flashbacks.
* ''The Winter Men'' is set in this era.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films – Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{GoldenEye}}'': most notable for a scene in a park full of removed Soviet statues in this regard and partly shot in St. Petersburg for second unit stuff. Until the bribes got too high.
* Alexei Balabanov's gritty crime films are pretty much an examination of this.
** ''Film/{{Brother1997}}'', his most famous movie is a parly crime drama, partly action movie about gun-toting AntiHero living and fighting in crime-ridden CityNoir of Saint-Petersburg.
** The sequel, ''Film/{{Brother 2}}'' was much better recieved publically '''AND''' much worse critically.
** ''Voina'' (''"War"'') is a movie about Chechen War.
** ''Dead Man's Bluff'', a very gory splatter-comedy about an incredibly dumb BumblingHenchmenDuo hunting a MacGuffin for their mob boss (played by no one other than Creator/NikitaMikhalkov), killing loads of people in process, often for very dumb reasons.
** ''The Stoker'', a nihilistic drana about ShellShockedVeteran of Afghan War, trying to survive the Russian Nineties, while maintaining sense of good and evil.
** ''Me Too'' is a re-telling of Tarkovsky's ''Film/Stalker1979''... in The New Russia!
* The low-budget {{Dystopia}}n sci-fi film ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124349/ The Syndicate]]'', directed by Tibor Takács and starring Creator/RutgerHauer (!). It is actually set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, but its predictions and overall mood are very much based on the Russian Nineties.
* ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'', with the climax being a CarChase in Moscow between Bourne and a rogue FSB assassin.
* A common setting for DirectToVideo action films such as ''The Mechanik'' (Creator/DolphLundgren) and 6 Bullets'' (Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme).
* Briefly shown as a dreary, snow-covered and crime-ridden place in ''Film/IronMan2''.
* The Swedish/Danish TearJerker ''Film/LilyaFourEver'' starts out here, fully exploring how awful it can be. [[FromBadToWorse And then it gets worse]].
* ''Film/{{Navalny}}'' (2022), a portrait of Aleksei Navalny, prominent political opponent to Vladimir Putin, who was poisoned in 2020.
* The gritty dramas of Creator/AndreyZvyagintsev:
** ''Film/{{Leviathan|2014}}'' is an extremely cynical portrayal of government corruption in modern Russia and its ruinous effects on regular people in the country. The film was so condemnatory of the government that it's actually [[BannedInChina banned in its native country]].
** ''Film/{{Loveless|2017}}'' uses a tale of AwfulWeddedLife and ParentalNeglect to paint a larger portrait of decay, dereliction and moral detachment in modern Russia.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Sergey Lukyanenko's ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' and sequels, though that's technically not New Russia at its worst.
* Naturally, a lot of modern Russian thrillers are set here.
* Boris Akunin's ''Nicholas Fandorin'' series could be described as ''Literature/ErastFandorin''... '''[[RecycledInSPACE IN NEW RUSSIA!]]'''
* Yulia Latynina's "economic thrillers" are all about New Russia's... unique economic conditions and the sort of people who actually thrive in it.
* Vladimir Sorokin's dilogy of dystopias ''The Day of Oprichnik'' and ''The Sugar Kremlin'' describes future Russia as a mix of New Russia and pre-UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat Muscovite UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia, with a large dose of CyberPunk and PostModernism.
* Vadim Panov's ''Secret City'' series of novel is basically about the Masquerade in modern Moscow, with plenty of crime in the background.
* Tom Clancy's ''Politika'', the novel and the board game.
* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl: The Arctic Incident'' features Mafiya and post-Soviet economic chaos.
* ''Literature/JohnWells'' has this in the Silent Man. It's only one chapter, but what Wells is so sickened that, if the choices were Afghan backwater or Moscow nightclub, he'll pick the first.
* While the futuristic Empire in ''Literature/NikolaiDante'' bears many trappings of its Tsarist inspiration, many of its traditions can be traced back to the hardships of post-Soviet Russia, with the [[DecadentCourt nobility]] themselves largely descended from the Mafiya.
* The main setting for ''Literature/BloodPromise''. Rose wanders in post-Soviet Russian cities like Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In the 2010 version of ''Series/{{Nikita}}'', it turns out that [[spoiler: Alex]] has a connection to this. She was the daughter of an extremely powerful Russian oligarch that was assassinated by a Division strike team making her a latter day Anastasia. Much of season two is about the conflict with a [[TheMafiya Russian PMC]] and Division.
* The ''Series/{{Limitless}}'' TV series has a whole episode taking place here and throws in as many tropes as possible: oligarchs, corrupt officials, hardbass, etc.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/RobbieWilliams' "Party Like a Russian" pokes fun at New Russian billionaire oligarchs. It also gives a sonic ShoutOut to Music/SergeiProkofiev's "Dance of the Knights".
* {{Music/Bastille}}'s ConceptAlbum ''Doom Days'' is influenced by this; the album is about partying while the world ends, and the band seems to view raves in post-Soviet Russia as an example of this. "Nocturnal Creatures" is the most blatant, as it samples a speech about how Russians had no idea what to do with their new freedom after the fall of the USSR.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/AgeOfAquarius'' is a TabletopRPG made in The New Russia, for The New Russia and about The New Russia... [[RecycledInSPACE with MAAAGIC!!!]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TwentyTwentySeven'' has a good chunk of the game set in the Russian ''Con''federation, which is shown to be little more than a crime-ridden police state.
* A third of ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' takes place in the New Russia, and Sergei Surkov is a New Russia businessman, his dossier noting that he's had a combination of the right brains and the right luck to do well for himself in the environment. It seems like this is something of a glossy sugar coating when you learn that he used to be part of the TheMafiya; as Russia is presented as having its fair share of organized crime problems, it wouldn't be a surprise to learn that he's lying about severing those ties.
* ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'':
** In ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare'', Sergeant Kamarov says, "Welcome to the new Russia, Captain Price." Russia is portrayed a decaying state locked in a civil war between the federal government and the ultranationalists.
** Averted in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'', when they invade America. After barely a few years, a nation that was just gripped in civil war is suddenly a global superpower again. Where they get the manpower and money to simultaneously invade ''every single major Western power'' is anyone's guess... At least ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare3'' indicates SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome, as it turns out that the invasion was just a powerful punch, with Russia being unable to fight any longer after just a few weeks with its leaders seeking peace.
* Adventure game ''The Big Red Adventure'', the sequel of ''VideoGame/NipponSafesInc'', begins in Moscow immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union, when many people embraced the capitalist lifestyle. It's a pretty heavy-handed satire, with the currency being named "rubledollars" and brands called "[=McRomanov=]", "Burger Czar", "Lenintendo" and "Vodka-Cola" (not to mention puns like "Super Marx"). The rest of the game is more of a parody of generic Russian stereotypes, but the main point is to stop a MadScientist who wants to resurrect Lenin in order to re-create USSR once again.
* ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'''s Russian campaign is set in the 2020s, where a young Mafiya enforcer with dreams of a restored Russia seizes power and eventually turns the country into an increasingly-fascist superpower before dying, giving control of the place to his robot bodyguard.
* The ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'' mod ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheReds'' revolves around a renewed Russian Federation reasserting its ambition as a superpower after shedding off the post-Soviet oligarchy for good, currently locked in a war with the European Continental Alliance (which is [[InsistentTerminology NOT the European Union]]).
* In ''VideoGame/GirlsFrontline'', the Russian Federation was succeeded by the [[PostSovietReunion Neo-Soviet Union]] in 2032 after a civil war between the then-current government and various Bolshevik groups. The T-Doll roster also has many representatives for the former Federation.
[[/folder]]
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