Post-Soviet Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Post-Soviet Russia - Essay Example The primordial president of the Russian Federation was Boris Yeltsin, a former member of the old Soviet Politburo who declared the moribund of the old Soviet-style regime. The reforms that he advocated pointed the country in the direction of democracy and a free-market economy. A small vested group and advisers took control from the debilitated president, and they ran the country as an oligarchy, granting themselves favors and inviting economic and political corruption. However, in spite of this development, a new constitution was put into place in 1993. The regular competitive elections have taken place since then. A new President, Vladimir Putin, was elected in 2000. Many observers believe that the influence of the oligarchy has declined since then. Modern Russia is a very changeable country. Russia has almost no empirical experience with democracy and a free market. In terms of administrative hierarchy, the Russian Federation is a constitutional democracy with three branches, executive, legislative, and judicial. In terms of procedure, however, the Russian Federation has a presidential form of government, which concentrates most authority in the president as the head of state. The head of state is Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was elected on June 16, 1996 for a four-year term. There is no vice-president. In the event of the incapability of the president to perform the constitutional mandate, the head of the government, the Premier, succeeds the president. The Premier and Chairman of the Russian Federation Government, Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin was appointed in December 1992 by the president. A First Deputy Premier and First Deputy Chairman of the Government assist the Premier. Russian politics is pluralistic. There are myriad numbers of political parties in Russia. The democratic and market reform oriented parties include: "Our Home Is Russia", the Yabloko Bloc, Russia's Democratic Choice Party, and Forward Russia. Traditional parties include: Congress of Russian Communities and "Women of Russia". Revisionist parties include: Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, the Agrarian Party, Power To the People and the Russian Communist Workers' Party. During the past five years the Russian government has taken substantial measures in converting to a market economy. The government performed a market reform program in January 1992. In the following three years, the government freed nearly all prices, cut defense spending, eliminated the old centralised distribution system, adopted a convertible currency and completed an ambitious voucher privatisation program in 1994. The government established private financial institutions, and decentralizing foreign trade. Within 1997, the transition to a market economy was nearly complete despite having many problems of irregular regulatory policy. In some areas, there were inadequate regulatory activity leading to monopoly practices and corruption. In other areas, there is excessive state interference in the economy leading to inefficiencies and corruption. It would be disappointment if the post-communist Russia, where the political stakes and human costs are incomparably