History UsefulNotes / RussianPoliticalSystem

Russian federalism can be divided into three periods: the first being the Yeltsin era, which was largely defined by chaos, economic destabilization, a prolonged crisis regarding Russian identity (that's still ongoing, albeit at a slightly lower volume), the problem of turning former domestic policy into foreign[[note]]What used to be internal trade within the Soviet Union was now international, thanks to the fifteen [=SSRs=] becoming independent states.[[/note]], securing the former Soviet Union's nuclear weapons, and, just for kicks, a civil war. Yeltsin enjoyed a great amount of support from the United States, and [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment while he was instrumental in bringing about the end of the Soviet Union, he was perhaps not well-suited to the presidency]]. UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin took office in 1999, during one of the most tumultuous periods of Russian history, and while he's the subject of quite a bit of criticism and often portrayed as an autocrat, this view only solidified after the fact. During the first era of his presidency (1999-2008), Putin was credited with centralizing power, which sounds like what he's being accused of doing now but for the fact that in 1999, Russia's federal government was so weak that various regions simply ignored federal law, knowing that Moscow was too weak to enforce it. The third era, or "now," is an open question, and whether or not Russia will move back toward open democracy is unclear.

Relatively new, but rather popular opposition leader and Yale-graduated lawyer, who started as a member of an unpopular liberal party, later, he became a very popular Livejournal blogger, who used open sources of information to uncover corruption in the Russian establishment (and there are TONS of it), and publically expressed his sympathies for Russian nationalism. During protests and the slow decline of Putin's popularity, he was gradually becoming much more popular, and is one of the few nationalists who are recognised by Russian society. Many his opponents consider him to be a puppet of the USA, while other think of him as a FalseFlagOperation staged by Putin. At one point, he, like he did to Kremlin bosses, was accused of corruption, put on a trial, and sentenced for five years (whether he was guilty or framed is a GIANT Flame Bait, so let's leave this topic untouched), but then he was temporarily freed, permitted to take part as a candidate in the election of Moscow mayor, came second, and was pardoned, which led many people to think that he is a Kremlin's puppet and ''agent provocateur''. The fact that his brother and many of followers have received real punishment has been used both to support and to undermine this position. That said, the ''agent provocateur'' position is generally agreed to have gotten a lot less defensible in 2020 after "someone" apparently tried to kill Navalny himself by smearing Novichok nerve agent on his underpants (really).[[note]]This would work because Novichok can be absorbed through the skin, especially the relatively thin skin of the groin area. Fortunately for Navalny and unfortunately for his assassins, the rate of absorption for Navalny was slow enough that he was able to get lifesaving medical attention--and a change of underpants--before the agent could kill him.[[/note]] (N.B.: Novichok is only available to the Russian security services.) This triggered some large (though not large-enough) protests across Russia after his return to Russia in 2021.

Relatively new, but rather popular opposition leader and Yale-graduated lawyer, who started as a member of an unpopular liberal party, later, he became a very popular Livejournal blogger, who used open sources of information to uncover corruption in the Russian establishment (and there are TONS of it), and publically expressed his sympathies for Russian nationalism. During protests and the slow decline of Putin's popularity, he was gradually becoming much more popular, and is one of the few nationalists who are recognised by Russian society. Many his opponents consider him to be a puppet of the USA, while other think of him as a FalseFlagOperation staged by Putin. At one point, he, like he did to Kremlin bosses, was accused of corruption, put on a trial, and sentenced for five years (whether he was guilty or framed is a GIANT Flame Bait, so let's leave this topic untouched), but then he was temporarily freed, permitted to take part as a candidate in the election of Moscow mayor, came second, and was pardoned, which led many people to think that he is a Kremlin's puppet and ''agent provocateur''. The fact that his brother and many of followers have received real punishment has been used both to support and to undermine this position. That said, the ''agent provocateur'' position is generally agreed to have gotten a lot less defensible in 2020 after "someone" apparently tried to kill Navalny himself by smearing Novichok nerve agent on his underpants (really). (N.B.: Novichok is only available to the Russian security services.)[[note]]This would work because Novichok can be absorbed through the skin, especially the relatively thin skin of the groin area. Fortunately for Navalny and unfortunately for his assassins, the rate of absorption for Navalny was slow enough that he was able to get lifesaving medical attention--and a change of underpants--before the agent could kill him.[[/note]] This triggered some large (though not large-enough) protests across Russia after his return to Russia in 2021.

Relatively new, but rather popular opposition leader and Yale-graduated lawyer, who started as a member of an unpopular liberal party, later, he became a very popular Livejournal blogger, who used open sources of information to uncover corruption in the Russian establishment (and there are TONS of it), and publically expressed his sympathies for Russian nationalism. During protests and the slow decline of Putin's popularity, he was gradually becoming much more popular, and is one of the few nationalists who are recognised by Russian society. Many his opponents consider him to be a puppet of the USA, while other think of him as a FalseFlagOperation staged by Putin. At one point, he, like he did to Kremlin bosses, was accused of corruption, put on a trial, and sentenced for five years (whether he was guilty or framed is a GIANT Flame Bait, so let's leave this topic untouched), but then he was temporarily freed, permitted to take part as a candidate in the election of Moscow mayor, came second, and was pardoned, which led many people to think that he is a Kremlin's puppet and ''agent provocateur''. The fact that his brother and many of followers have received real punishment has been used both to support and to undermine this position. That said, ''agent provocateur'' position is generally agreed to have gotten a lot less defensible in 2020 after "someone" apparently tried to kill Navalny himself by smearing Novichok nerve agent on his underpants (really). (N.B.: Novichok is only available to the Russian security services.) This triggered some large (though not large-enough) protests across Russia after his return to Russia in 2021.

Relatively new, but rather popular opposition leader and Yale-graduated lawyer, who started as a member of an unpopular liberal party, later, he became a very popular Livejournal blogger, who used open sources of information to uncover corruption in the Russian establishment (and there are TONS of it), and publically expressed his sympathies for Russian nationalism. During protests and the slow decline of Putin's popularity, he was gradually becoming much more popular, and is one of the few nationalists who are recognised by Russian society. Many his opponents consider him to be a puppet of the USA, while other think of him as a FalseFlagOperation staged by Putin. At one point, he, like he did to Kremlin bosses, was accused of corruption, put on a trial, and sentenced for five years (whether he was guilty or framed is a GIANT Flame Bait, so let's leave this topic untouched), but then he was temporarily freed, permitted to take part as a candidate in the election of Moscow mayor, came second, and was pardoned, which led many people to think that he is a Kremlin's puppet and ''agent provocateur''. The fact that his brother and many of followers have received real punishment has been used both to support and to undermine this position. That said, ''agent provocateur'' position is generally agreed to have gotten a lot less defensible in 2020 after someone apparently tried to kill Navalny himself by smearing Novichok nerve agent on his underpants (really), triggering some large (though not large-enough) protests across Russia after his return to Russia in 2021.

Relatively new, but rather popular opposition leader and Yale-graduated lawyer, who started as a member of an unpopular liberal party, later, he became a very popular Livejournal blogger, who used open sources of information to uncover corruption in the Russian establishment (and there are TONS of it), and publically expressed his sympathies for Russian nationalism. During protests and the slow decline of Putin's popularity, he was gradually becoming much more popular, and is one of the few nationalists who are recognised by Russian society. Many his opponents consider him to be a puppet of the USA, while other think of him as a FalseFlagOperation staged by Putin. Recently, he, like he did to Kremlin bosses, was accused of corruption, put on a trial, and sentenced for five years (whether he was guilty or framed is a GIANT Flame Bait, so let's leave this topic untouched), but then he was temporarily freed, permitted to take part as a candidate in the election of Moscow mayor, came second, and was pardoned, which led many people to think that he is a Kremlin's puppet and ''agent provocateur.'' The fact that his brother and many of followers have received real punishment may or may not help this.

The Russian Federation is a [[ShapedLikeItself federation]] of 83 [[UsefulNotes/OtherRussianTownsAndCities subjects]] (89 before the mergers of the late 2000s), after the events of 2014 two more subjects added, and both are disputed territories de-facto administered by Russia. It is a presidential democratic republic -- even though the suspicious distribution of power between President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin in 2008-2012 caused some pundits to believe it's actually semi-presidential, if you look at the Constitution, you'll see it's extremely lopsided in favor of the President.

** For those in the west, it's best to think of United Russia as a political apparatus that happened to become a long-term political party rather than a party of ideas. United Russia was born from the need to have a designated group backing Putin during his first term. The fact that United Russia happened to cohere, remain a viable force, and develop a platform was something of a happy accident.
* [[GoodOldWays Communist Party of Russian Federation]]: Supposedly communist, but in fact social-conservative — that is, ''both'' social-democratic and socially conservative. Unlike the communists of USSR, these guys support the church, do not mind businessmen, believe in traditional social mores and do not want to restore USSR. Led by the uncharismatic, [[{{Gonk}} unattractive]] and unambitious Gennady Zyuganov, a persistent presidential candidate of the party aside from the 2004 and 2018 elections, when he was replaced by Nikolay Kharitonov and Pavel "Strawberry Baron" Grudinin, a Communist entrepreneur, respectively. Often accused of closely toeing TheGovernment's line and being opposition InNameOnly.

* [[NonIndicativeName Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia]]: Neither liberal nor democratic, it's, in fact, a pseudo-nationalist (mainly because Zhirinovsky is all bark and no bite) party centered around its leader, the famous political clown Vladimir Zhirinovsky, another eternal presidential candidate. This party owes its strange name to the fact it was created in the late 1980s, when "liberal" and "democratic" were buzzwords of instant success. The target of the same accusations as CPRF. The United States considered Zhirinovsky a legitimate threat to Yeltsin in the mid-90s. He's also done some xenophobic raps and bellicose sabre-rattling, including a live TV interview in 2014 where he threatened that Russia would nuke Poland and the Baltics if NATO interferes in the Ukraine mess.

* Right Cause: An old-school liberal party. In their goals, mind you, as their methods, which included slander, boycotting and an undeniably classist approach, were surprisingly Bolshevik. Liberalism is somewhat TheScrappy of ideologies in Russia because of the liberals' infamous reforms of 1990s which spawned a lot of corruption and a hell of starving poor people, which is why they consistently fail to win enough votes to get into parliament. Their [[WeAreStrugglingTogether constant internal squabbles]] don't help either. As is the liberals' reputation as unabashed Western lickspitties, which alienates ''a lot'' of the [[PatrioticFervor more patriotic voters]]. It is sometimes said that if Russian Liberals existed in the US, they'd be tarred and feathered ''in seconds'' for their disloyalty to the nation.

* [[GoodOldWays Communist Party of Russian Federation]]: Supposedly communist, but in fact social-conservative — that is, ''both'' social-democratic and socially conservative. Unlike the communists of USSR, these guys support the church, do not mind businessmen, believe in traditional social mores and do not want to restore USSR. Led by the uncharismatic, [[{{Gonk}} unattractive]] and unambitious Gennady Zyuganov, a presidential candidate until 2018, when he was replaced by Pavel "Strawberry Baron" Grudinin, a Communist entrepreneur. Often accused of closely toeing TheGovernment's line and being opposition InNameOnly.

Russian federalism can be divided into three periods: the first being the Yeltsin era, which was largely defined by chaos, economic destabilization, a prolonged crisis regarding Russian identity (that's still ongoing, albeit at a slightly lower volume), the problem of turning former domestic policy into foreign[[note]]What used to be internal trade within the Soviet Union was now international, thanks to the fifteen [=SSRs=] becoming independent states.[[/note]], securing the former Soviet Union's nuclear weapons, and, just for kicks, a civil war. Yeltsin enjoyed a great amount of support from the United States, and [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment while he was instrumental in bringing about the end of the Soviet Union, he was perhaps not well-suited to the presidency]]. UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin took office in 1999, during one of the most tumultuous periods of Russian history, and while he's the subject of quite a bit of criticism and often portrayed as an autocrat, this view only solidified after the fact. During the first era of his presidency (1999-2008), Putin was credited with centralizing power, which sounds like what he's being accused of doing now but for the fact that in 1999, Russia's federal government was so weak that various regions simply ignored federal law, knowing that Moscow was too weak to enforce it. The third era, or "now," is an open question, and whether or not Russia will move back toward open democracy is unclear.

Relatively new, but rather popular opposition leader and Yale-graduated lawyer, who started as a member of an unpopular liberal party, later, he became a very popular Livejournal blogger, who used open sources of information to uncover corruption in the Russian establishment (and there are TONS of it), and publically expressed his sympathies for Russian nationalism. During protests and the slow decline of Putin's popularity, he was gradually becoming much more popular, and is one of the few nationalists who are recognised by Russian society. Many his opponents consider him to be a puppet of the USA, while other think of him as a FalseFlagOperation staged by Putin. Recently, he, like he did to Kremlin bosses, was accused of corruption, put on a trial, and sentenced for five years (whether he was guilty or framed is a GIANT FlameBait, so let's leave this topic untouched), but then he was temporarily freed, permitted to take part as a candidate in the election of Moscow mayor, came second, and was pardoned, which led many people to think that he is a Kremlin's puppet and ''agent provocateur.'' The fact that his brother and many of followers have received real punishment may or may not help this.

[[RussianGuySuffersMost Life in Russia]] was [[CrapsackWorld never nice]], and political life is not an exception. The Russian Federation started in what appeared to be a peaceful, bloodless resolution of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar (only three men perished during the 1991 coup attempt), but two years later, the Russian Constitution of 1993 was written in blood after President Yeltsin ordered tanks to shoot live shells at the unruly parliament (housed in the White House -- not that one -- for bonus irony). Since then, Russia managed to turn even democracy into a dystopia. Granted, Russia didn't arrive at "dystopia" without a considerable amount of [[NiceJobBreakingItHero help from the United States and Europe]], multiple international crises that Russia bore the brunt of but had no control over[[note]]Thailand devaluing the baht during the Asian financial crisis could not have happened at a worse possible time -- for Russia.[[/note]], complications from the laws of the International Monetary Fund, and then the infamous "less shock, more therapy" period.[[note]]The line in question was uttered by Strobe Talbott, who worked at the State Department under Clinton and was the face of US-Russian relations. Both he and Russia scholars regard that moment as a deserved "never live it down."[[/note]] Historically, Russia has always had an uneasy relationship with democracy, creating a SelfFulfillingProphecy that to be Russian is to suffer and that Russia is doomed to authoritarian rule. As always, [[TakeAThirdOption it's actually much more complicated]], but that's what doctoral programmes are for.

* Right Cause: An old-school liberal party. In their goals, mind you, as their methods, which included slander, boycotting and an undeniably classist approach, were surprisingly Bolshevik. Liberalism is somewhat TheScrappy of ideologies in Russia because of the liberals' infamous reforms of 1990s which spawned a lot of {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s and a hell of starving poor people, which is why they consistently fail to win enough votes to get into parliament. Their [[WeAreStrugglingTogether constant internal squabbles]] don't help either. As is the liberals' reputation as unabashed Western lickspitties, which alienates ''a lot'' of the [[PatrioticFervor more patriotic voters]]. It is sometimes said that if Russian Liberals existed in the US, they'd be tarred and feathered ''in seconds'' for their disloyalty to the nation.

* [[TheEmpire United Russia]]: The juggernaut conservative political party that backs the President and Prime Minister. Can be best described as a party of [[CorruptPolitician state bureaucrats]] and anyone who wants to get close to them. It's a political machine that hogs votes using aggressive propaganda, underhanded manipulations and administrative resources (that's ordering people how to vote, for those not in the know). The Duma of 2007 was utterly dominated by this party; the Duma of 2011 appears to be less United Russia-dominated, and even that year's electoral results (45%) resulted in riots and rallies protesting against United Russia's underhanded tactics.

* [[GoodOldWays Communist Party of Russian Federation]]: Supposedly communist, but in fact social-conservative — that is, ''both'' social-democratic and socially conservative. Unlike the communists of USSR, these guys support the church, do not mind businessmen, believe in traditional social mores and do not want to restore USSR. Led by the uncharismatic, [[{{Gonk}} unattractive]] and unambitious Gennady Zyuganov, an eternal presidential candidate (No longer, he was replaced Pavel "Strawberry Baron" Grudinin). Often accused of closely toeing TheGovernment's line and being opposition InNameOnly.

* Apple Party (Yabloko): Another liberal party, offering more socialized liberalism akin to what the Democratic party of America believes in. Popular among the educated, cosmopolitan middle class of the big cities, but without support from other voters, the party's numbers are too low for it to maintain real influence. It constantly teeters on the representation barrier, sometimes making it, and sometimes not. The name for the party is somewhat lost in translation as a reference to the surnames of its founders (Yavlinsky, Boldyrev, Lukin)

* [[GoodOldWays Communist Party of Russian Federation]]: Supposedly communist, but in fact social-conservative — that is, ''both'' social-democratic and socially conservative. Unlike the communists of USSR, these guys support the church, do not mind businessmen, believe in traditional social mores and do not want to restore USSR. Led by the uncharismatic, [[{{Gonk}} unattractive]] and unambitious Gennady Zyuganov, an eternal presidential candidate. Often accused of closely toeing TheGovernment's line and being opposition InNameOnly.