Robert Coalson worked as a correspondent for RFE/RL from 2002 to 2024.
One thing can be said for Russia's outgoing president -- he leaves the country richer than he found it. But in the long term, Putin-style politics may prove the country's economic downfall.
The Kremlin rarely makes concessions, particularly if no one in a position of strength is asking for them. But that is exactly what seems to be happening in an otherwise unsurprising, strictly scripted presidential succession.
The all-but-certain Russian presidential successor Dmitry Medvedev talks a respectable game when it comes to democracy. But can any official raised in the Putin ranks ever truly break with tradition?
This week's scrapping of the $150 billion fund signals a stern test for a government that has eliminated institutions that could bolster its stabilization efforts. Pressure to spend the fund has been building from its inception.
The Kremlin political machine is running at full steam to promote Dmitry Medvedev as the next Russian president. As Putin's chosen heir visits the regions, pressing local officials into service, the Kremlin-controlled media is giving Medvedev "complete supremacy" in its coverage.
Vladimir Putin has clearly earned the distinction of person of the year, and "Time" editors are careful to note that it "is not and never has been an honor." But has he really carried out what the U.S. newsweekly suggests is a "grand bargain" of freedom for stability?
The announcement of President Putin's heir apparent was awaited with an anticipation comparable with what accompanies word that the king has finally produced a son. But the appearance of a prince does not mean that Russia's perilous managed transition is complete -- in fact it now enters its most dangerous phase.
December 3, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- No one was surprised that preliminary official results of the December 2 Duma elections gave a resounding victory to the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party. With some 64 percent of the vote, according to government figures, the party seems set to get about 310 seats in the 450-seat lower chamber -- more than the two-thirds majority needed to initiate constitutional changes.
There is an "election" going on in Russia. Not an election, but an "election." This is not an election that falls short of international standards. It is not a democratic, a flawed-democratic, or even a pseudo-democratic process. According to a recent RFE/RL poll, nearly half of voting age Russians say if they do vote, it will be out of a sense of "duty."
November 30, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- On the one hand, the Kremlin's plan for the legislative elections seems to be proceeding smoothly. Election commissions, local officials, the police, the courts, and the pseudo-opposition parties all seem to be doing their part to ensure that the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party wins in a rout.
Reports that Vladimir Putin has prepared a statement to be broadcast to the nation have fueled speculation that the message might answer the "2008 question."
The December 2 landslide will not be derived from popular support for Putin or Unified Russia. It will be the product of a dirty combination of undemocratic practices, blatant fear-mongering, the manipulation of public cynicism, and the total elimination of competition.
November 7, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Russia has its own path to democracy, one that is determined by the country's long history, President Vladimir Putin and his entourage frequently assert. To understand their vision of Russia's future, one must pay attention to their use of the past and to the national myths they create and promote.
October 15, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- No one knows how many people were working for or with the KGB when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. That information was never revealed in a country where even rudimentary lustration never got off the ground.
A clampdown on non-Kremlin-friendly demonstrations has been going on for over a year now, an important part of the administration's strategy for marginalizing all opposition.
The collapse of a realistic liberal-democratic alternative and the strong public support for firm central rule are products of a profoundly undemocratic political environment. But observers must resist the Kremlin's effort to cast election victories as popular support for authoritarianism.
President Vladimir Putin's surprise announcement that he will head a pro-Kremlin party's list of candidates in December parliamentary elections seems likely to scuttle his administration's efforts to develop at least the appearance of a pluralist political system.
Even by the standards of late Putin-era Russian television, a recent "special report" by Rossiya television raised eyebrows. It accused the CIA of being behind recent "velvet revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan -- and said that Russia is next.
Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov says corruption is "sinking" Russia, but previous anticorruption drives give little cause for optimism that anything will change now.
Already caught off-guard by the prime minister's sudden resignation, the political elite was sent reeling by the follow-up announcement of who is to succeed him.
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