Contemporary World Politics

Reforms Under Gorbachev• GlasnostGlasnost- openness

• Ended censorship and encouraged discussion about problems

• More freedom to travel abroad

• PerestroikaPerestroika- restructuring of government and economy (similar to Lenin’s NEP)

• Some Foreign businesses allowed

• Backed some free market ideas (like China)

Down Goes USSR… Down Goes USSR

• Reforms brought economic disaster

• Shortages grew, prices increased

• High unemployment• By 1991- Estonia, Latvia,

Lithuania, Poland, E. Germany, and Romania broke free and gained independence from USSR

Soviet Military Coup brings down Gorbachev: 1991

Crisis Begins … continues

The New Russia… 15 Republics become independent nations by 1992

Boris Yeltsin takes control:

• Becomes first democratic leader of Russia in 1992

•Pushes for expansive free-market, capitalist economic reforms

•Economic reforms lead to widespread corruption, abuse, and growth of “Russian Mob”

•Russian economy nearly collapses in 1998

•Declares war on Chechnya

Russia and Chechnya• 1991- Breakup of Soviet

Union

• Chechnya declares independence (right to self-determination)

• Russia does not allow independence

Chechnya

• Chechnya- size of Massachusetts

• 1,165,000 people

• Chechens are Muslim

• Use terrorist attacks

Why Not Give Independence?

• Small minority of Russians in Chechnya

• Caspian Sea- very oil rich region

• Other independence movements will follow

• Continued fighting today

Russian soldiers look for rebels from Chechnya (in southern Russia)

Schoolchildren Observe Building Bombed by Russians in Chechnya, 2000

MOSCOW THEATRE HOSTAGEMOSCOW THEATRE HOSTAGE

Some Russians pay a price for locating the Chechen rebels.

Sometimes the Chechens pay the

ultimate price.

Vladimir Putin •Soviet KGB agent from 1975-1991

•Became President of Russia after Yeltsin 1999-2008

•As President he continued the war in Chechnya

•Placed restictions on capitalism and democratic reforms

•Is Russia sliding back towards authoritarianism?

Black belt in judo

Who is really in charge?

Medevedev

Constitutional limits forced Putin to step down in 2008. Medvedev

Re-elected Russian President March 4, 2012

Russia’s Relations with the World• U.S. seeks to dominate post Cold War world; arranges financial bailouts of Russia’s 1998 economic collapse

• Putin resents U.S. influence; creates closer ties between Russia & China, Iran, Syria

•Russia inherited the Soviet military/nuclear arsenal

•Will Russia continue as a capitalist democracy?