gh Gorbachev

t was Yeltsin
d Democracy
.
 Reforms Under Gorbachev
• Glasnost- openness

• Ended censorship and

encouraged discussion about
problems
• More freedom to travel abroad

• Perestroika- 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 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 Black belt
capitalism and in judo
democratic reforms
•Is Russia sliding back
towards
authoritarianism?
 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?