Carnegie Moscow Center
Russia’s economic fortunes often determine the popularity of its leaders, and the personality of those leaders, in turn, influences the country’s socio-political development.
Russia’s current political system is unable to create the conditions necessary for economic modernization, which can only flourish where political competition exists. Consequently, Russia first needs to reform its political system, but this process faces a number of risks.
A number of major domestic challenges, including violence in the Caucasus, anger over this summer’s wildfires, and the need for significant police reform, face the Russian government as the country moves towards the 2012 presidential elections.
While the number of deputies, and particularly the number of full-time, salaried deputies, in Russian regional parliaments is falling, the number of appointed politicians is rising.
The effects of globalization have spread to every corner of the world, but its manifestations can differ significantly. Le Monde Diplomatique's Atlas 2010 contains information on how globalization is affecting different parts of the world.
The circumstances surrounding the exodus of the Russian population of Chechnya and the deterioration of bilateral relations must be better understood if Moscow wishes to cultivate positive relations between Chechens and Russians and to avoid similar developments in other parts of Russia.
Civil society development in Russia faces a great number of problems. Civil society exists, but it is fragmentary and divided and existing spaces for dialogue with the state have notable limits.
As a new round of Russian-EU negotiations on visa-free travel begins, the difficult task of improving the process by which citizens of Russia and the CIS obtain Schengen visas remains.
The conflicts in the Caucasus are often directly linked to changes in territorial borders. Creating an atlas of the Caucasus is a key to understanding the nature of the conflicts in the region.
Under President Putin, Russia’s government was a hybrid regime that combined elements of both democracy and authoritarianism. Two years into Medvedev’s presidency, the basic structure of government has not significantly changed.