1,037,647,088 visitors served.

Russian Federation

Country in northern Asia and eastern Europe, bounded north by the Arctic Ocean; east by the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk; west by Norway, Finland, the Baltic States, Belarus, and Ukraine; and south by China, Mongolia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan.

Government

The 1993 constitution is modelled on that of France, increasing presidential authority at the expense of the legislature and enhancing the centre's authority over Russia's 21 republics and 68 regions. The president, who is directly elected for a maximum of two five-year terms, serves as head of state and the armed forces and nominates the prime minister and council of ministers (cabinet). There is a two-tier legislature, the Federal Assembly, comprising the Council of the Federation (upper house), with 178 members (two from each of the regions and republics), and the State Duma (lower house), with 225 seats elected by proportional representation (parties must receive at least 5% of the total votes cast to secure any representation) and 225 seats elected by simple-majority voting in single-member constituencies. The president has the authority to dismiss the prime minister and may issue decrees and veto laws, although the veto may be overturned by two-thirds majorities in both houses. The president also appoints and heads a Security Council and proposes the chair of the Central Bank, the Prosecutor General, and key members of the judiciary. Since 1994 the interior, defence, and foreign-affairs ministries have been directly subordinate to the president.

The powers of the Federal Assembly are relatively weak compared to those of the president. It may not consider presidential decrees and while it may oust a government through a vote of confidence, it must do so twice within three months before the president is forced to take action. The president may then either form a new government or dissolve the Assembly and call fresh elections. The Federal Assembly may, however, impeach the president if both chambers vote in favour and there is agreement from both the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. The State Duma has the right to reject two presidential nominees for the post of prime minister (it can be dissolved by the president if it rejects a third).

History For pre-1990 history see Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Russian Federation declared its economic and political sovereignty in June 1990 and began to challenge Soviet authority. It held back revenue, embarked on a strategy of market reform, and established its own independent security and communications structures.

Commonwealth of Independent States formed

In August 1991, communist hardliners attempted, but failed, to overthrow Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. After this, the Russian Federation, led by Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first-ever popularly elected leader, moved swiftly to break the political-institutional structures that had held together the USSR, in particular the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Russia sought to maintain some sort of confederal structure in order that economic ties might continue and territorial disputes be avoided, but was wary of Gorbachev's plan for a reorganized federation. Instead, after Ukraine's independence referendum on 1 December 1991, Russia proposed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The USA officially acknowledged Russia's independence in the same month and accorded it diplomatic recognition, as did the European Community, and admission to the United Nations was granted. Gorbachev resigned on 25 December, effectively yielding power to Yeltsin.

The newly independent republic

The Russian Federation contains almost half the population of the former USSR and around 70% of its agricultural and industrial output.

It is a vast federation, spanning 11 time zones, stretching 3,000 km/2,000 mi from the Arctic Ocean to China, and containing 21 ‘autonomous republics’, five ‘autonomous regions’, and ten ‘autonomous districts’, each catering for a distinct non-Russian ethnic group, including Tatars, Chechens, Chuvash, Dagestanis, Buryats, Yakuts, Kalmyks, and Chuchi, and each with its own parliament and laws. After 1990 many of these made sovereignty or independence declarations, most conspicuously the oil-rich and predominantly Muslim Tataria (Tatarstan), where Russia's largest ethnic minority resides, gas-rich Bashkir, Siberian Yakutia, and Checheno-Ingush in the southwest, which made integration into the new federation difficult despite Russia's pledge to concede considerable autonomy. The Russian Federation also faced the threat of territorial claims and border conflicts with neighbouring republics.

The new Russian Federation, despite the weakness of its economy, remained a ‘great power’. It inherited much of the former USSR's strategic and diplomatic assets, including a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (taken up in 1992), embassies overseas, and a considerable conventional and nuclear military arsenal.

Despite growing internal frictions, a federal treaty between Yeltsin and the leaders of 18 of Russia's 20 main political subdivisions was signed in March 1992 giving regional governments broad autonomy within a loose Russian Federation. Checheno-Ingush and Tatarstan refused to sign.

Economic problems

Russia's immediate concern was the rapid deterioration in living standards and shortages of food and consumer goods as a result of loosening price restraints and the restructuring of commerce, the military sector, and industry. In January 1992 nearly a dozen cities were rocked by rioting consumers protesting over the lifting of price controls. International efforts to stabilize the economy included a $2.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in August and the offer in September 1992 of more than $1 billion in food aid from the USA. During 1992, 46,815 small firms, mostly shops, were privatized. The country remained bedevilled by hyper-inflation (prices rising by 2000% during 1992) and declining output. A new IMF loan of $13 billion was negotiated in April 1993, dependent on the implementation of market reforms. The number of unemployed rose from none in 1985 to 1.7 million in 1995; the number of registered crimes doubled during the same period to 2.8 million.

Arms control

In the first official Russian-US summit in June 1992, Yeltsin and Bush agreed on a major reduction in strategic nuclear weapons. The pact would leave the two powers with less than one-half of the warheads they would have retained under the 1991 START agreement. In August 1992 an agreement was reached for joint control of the disputed Black Sea fleet by Russia and the Ukraine until 1995, after which time it would be divided between the two countries. The pact effectively removed the fleet from the command of the CIS. In December 1992, Yeltsin and Bush signed the START II arms-reduction treaty.

Congress of People's Deputies-Yeltsin power struggle

In December 1992 the seventh session of the Congress of People's Deputies elected the conservative, former industrial manager, Viktor Chernomyrdin, to replace the young market reformer, Yegor Gaidar, as prime minister. The Congress met for its eighth session in March 1993 and attempted to limit President Yeltsin's powers to rule by decree and to cancel a constitutional referendum due to be held in April. President Yeltsin struck back by declaring temporary presidential ‘special rule’ and the referendum was held as planned. The results showed that, by a small majority, the Russian people supported President Yeltsin and approved the continuation of his economic reforms and the proposed new constitution.

Anti-Yeltsin coup thwarted

In October 1993 an insurrection against President Yeltsin led by Alexander Rutskoi, the ‘pretender president’, and Ruslan Khasbulatov, the chairman of the former Russian parliament, was crushed by the Russian army, claiming at least 118 lives. The crisis started in September when, faced with continuing opposition to his reforms within the conservative-dominated Congress, Yeltsin dissolved parliament and announced that he would rule by decree until fresh assembly elections in December. Congress responded by voting to impeach him and electing Vice-president Rutskoi in his place. (Rutskoi had earlier been dismissed by Yeltsin but parliament had voted against the dismissal.) A siege of the parliament building ensued and on 4 October troops loyal to Yeltsin stormed the building. Rutskoi and Khasbulatov were imprisoned.

Far-right gains

In December 1993 elections to a new bicameral state legislature, the Federal Assembly, produced an inconclusive result, but the extremist Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which was reported to have widespread backing among the military, captured the largest single share of the vote (23%). A new constitution, increasing the powers of the president and strengthening central government authority, was narrowly approved in a referendum later in the month. Following the far-right electoral gains, Yeltsin was obliged to compromise on the pace of his reforms and several prominent reformers quit the cabinet during early 1994, including former premier Yegor Gaidar. In February 1994, despite opposition from the president, an amnesty was granted to the leaders of both the 1991 and 1993 abortive coups. In the same month, an autonomy agreement was reached with Tatarstan.

During 1994 Russia reached an economic accord with the European Union (formerly the European Community) and signed a ‘partnership for peace’ agreement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which resulted in it participating in NATO exercises. The last Russian troops were withdrawn from eastern Germany and the Baltic states in August 1994, but peacekeeping forces were stationed in the Caucasus region and Tajikistan. The economy had contracted further during 1993, inflation remained high, and organized crime was on the increase. However, by 1994, 30% of state-owned enterprises had been privatized and 62% of GDP was produced by the private sector. Positive growth in GDP was at last registered in 1995.

Civil war in Chechnya

Russia's invasion of the breakaway republic of Chechnya (until June 1992 part of Checheno-Ingush) in December 1994 threatened to create another ‘Afghanistan situation’. Indiscriminate bombing of the republic's capital, Groznyy, in the face of fierce Chechen resistance resulted in high numbers of casualties, many of them civilian. As reports of low troop morale and lack of a unified command filtered back from the front, criticism of Russia's conduct of the war, estimated to have cost around £660 million a week, mounted both at home and abroad. On 30 July 1995 a peace deal, brokered by Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, was signed. It followed a hostage crisis in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk, in which 140 people had been killed, and the passing of a no-confidence motion by the State Duma (lower house) over the government's handling of the incident. Chernomyrdin agreed to enter into negotiations with the Chechen guerrillas in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages and the resultant deal provided for an immediate ceasefire, demilitarization of the republic, enhanced autonomy, and the holding of fresh elections in December 1995. Fighting continued, however, in mountainous southern Chechnya prior to and during the elections and in January 1996 international outrage followed the Russian army's bombardment of a village on the Chechen border where 100 were being held hostage by 250 Chechen separatists. At least 150 Chechen lives were lost in the assault.

President Yeltsin's health had deteriorated noticeably during 1995, his public appearances became infrequent, and he appeared increasingly to be subject to the overall command of a conservative military-nationalist grouping (as had Gorbachev 1990-91). Voter disillusionment was reflected in the results of parliamentary elections in December 1995, in which the Communist Party attracted the largest share of the vote, 21%.

Vladimir Kadannikov replaced Anatoly Chubais as first deputy prime minister in January 1996. In February 1996, despite widespread concern over the Russian military's human-rights record in the Chechen conflict, Russia was admitted to the Council of Europe and in the same month the IMF agreed a three-year loan of $10 billion. The communist-dominated Russian parliament passed a resolution in March which denounced the December 1991 Belovezhsk Agreement which had broken up the Soviet Union. In April an agreement on economic union was signed with Belarus and closer ties were also established with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The civil war in Chechnya continued and the rebel leader Jokar Dudaev was killed during a rocket attack in April. In May his successor Zelimkhan Yandarbiev agreed a peace deal with Yeltsin providing for a ceasefire to commence 1 June, followed by the withdrawal of Russian troops in August, the mutual release of detainees, and Chechen sovereignty within the Russian state. Also in May Yeltsin issued a proposal to phase out conscription to the Russian army by the year 2000.

Yeltsin re-elected

Boosted by the Chechnya peace deal, Yeltsin won the first round of the presidential election in June 1996, defeating his main rival, Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Russian Communist Party, with 35% of the vote compared to Zyuganov's 32%. Alexander Lebed, a former middle-ranking officer of Russian troops in Afghanistan, running on an anti-crime and anti-corruption platform, gained 15% of the vote. Quickly appointing Alexander Lebed as national security officer, Yeltsin went on to secure his re-election in the run-off race against Zyuganov in July.

Lebed negotiated a ceasefire and peace plan for Chechnya in August 1996, providing for the withdrawal of Russian troops, the formation of a transitional government, and the granting of ‘special status’ to Chechnya within the Russian Federation. Also in August a new ‘super party’, the Patriotic Popular Union of Russia (PPUR) was formed by the Russian Communist Party and the Agrarian Party. Leading figures in the new party included Rutskoi and former soviet prime minister Nikolai Ryzhkov.

In October 1996, less than four months after his appointment as national security adviser, Lebed was sacked by Yeltsin after he publicly feuded with interior minister Anatoly Kulikov, who had accused Lebed of planning a ‘creeping coup’. Lebed was replaced by Ivan Rybkin. In the same month, Rutskoi was elected governor of Kursk in southwest Russia.

Yeltsin underwent heart bypass surgery in November 1996, and concern over his health continued after he returned to work a month later; he returned to hospital in January 1997, suffering from pneumonia.

Direct elections, held mid-1996-early 1997, brought to power a number of independents and communists; this weakened presidential control over the upper house of parliament, the Council of the Federation, whose representatives comprised the heads of the local legislature and executive.

In January 1997, all remaining Russian combat troops were withdrawn from Chechnya and Aslan Maskhadov, the comparatively moderate former chief-of-staff of the Chechen army and prime minister in the interim government, who had negotiated the August 1996 peace deal, was elected president of the separatist republic.

Critical of the ineffectiveness of his government, in March 1997 President Yeltsin promoted his reformist chief-of-staff, Anatoly Chubais, to the positions of first deputy prime minister and finance minister, and brought in Boris Nemtsov, the reforming governor of Nizhniy Novgorod province, as the other first deputy prime minister. In effect, they would take over control of the economy from prime minister Chernomyrdin in what was Russia's most reform-minded government for several years. The reduction of household subsidies and pensions reform were key priorities of the new government. Valentin Yumashev, a journalist, became the president's new chief-of-staff. Vladimir Potanin, who had been appointed first deputy prime minister in charge of the economy in August 1996, was sacked.

In March 1997, at a summit meeting in Helsinki with US President Clinton, President Yeltsin reluctantly accepted that NATO would expand to take in Central European members and agreed to push ahead with further cuts in nuclear, chemical, and conventional weapons. However, the START II treaty remained unratified by the Russian parliament.

In September 1997, President Yeltsin signed a controversial bill that endangered religious freedoms regained only since the collapse of the USSR. The new law meant that the churches needed documentary proof from the authorities that they had a legal entity in the USSR 15 years earlier, under Brezhnev's regime. The law caused an international outcry, particularly from minority religions in Russia, human-rights groups, the Vatican, and the USA. The new law was put into practice in October when the police stormed a Ukrainian Orthodox church near Moscow and arrested the church's archbishop. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church had broken away from the Russian Orthodox Church after the end of the USSR.

In October 1997, Russia's lower house of parliament voted to ratify the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, banning the development, production, and use of chemical weapons, an accord backed by over 160 countries. Russia is the largest possessor of such weapons, with stocks of over 40,000 tonnes. Also in October the opposition withdrew the threat of a vote of no confidence against the government of Prime Minister Chernomyrdin after President Yeltsin proposed round-table negotiations (involving nine members from the Federation Council, eight from the State Duma, and three each from the government and the presidency) on controversial policies, including household subsidies and land ownership.

Corruption and instability

In November Boris Berezovsky, one of Russia's richest men, who had been condemned as the unacceptable face of new Russian ‘crony capitalism’, was sacked from his post as adviser to the president for allegedly seeking to further his own business interests. In November the leading reformist politician, Anatoly Chubais, resigned as finance minister after it was revealed that he had accepted an advance of $90,000 for a planned book on privatization. The money came from a publishing house linked to a bank that had done well out of privatizations which Chubais had overseen in his ministerial capacity. Mikhail Zadornov, formerly head of the budget committee of the Duma, and a member of the Yabloko liberal opposition party, became the new finance minister and Prime Minister Chernomyrdin regained more influence over economic policy. However, Chubais was persuaded by President Yeltsin to remain as a first-deputy prime minister since the country faced a difficult winter, with austerity continuing and economic growth only just starting.

Relations with China

President Yeltsin and the Chinese head of state, Jiang Zemin, in mid-November 1997 ended a long-running border dispute that had exploded into armed clashes during the 1960s. The agreement to implement a 1991 accord that mapped out the entire 4,480-km/2,800-mi frontier was reached during the fifth Sino-Russian summit in Moscow. Implementation of the border accord was delayed because of disagreements amongst experts as to where to place markers on the eastern frontier stretching in an arc from Mongolia to the Sea of Japan.

Government sacked by Yeltsin

President Yeltsin surprised Moscow and the West in March 1998 by sacking his entire government, including two of its pivotal figures - Viktor Chernomyrdin, the prime minister, and his most aggressive free-marketeer, Anatoly Chubais, the first deputy prime minister. Yeltsin was quick to issue a reassurance that Russia would press ahead with its programme of economic reforms, which were widely blamed by the country's people for causing years of economic misery. The West was reassured by Yeltsin's appointment as acting prime minister of Sergei Kiriyenko, the Fuel and Energy Minister, who had a reputation as a committed reformist. Kiriyenko, a former banker and oil refinery manager, was finally accepted by the Duma in the third round of voting in late April. He formed a young cabinet by Russian standards - the three most senior members of the cabinet - after the President himself - were no more than 40 years old. The reformist Boris Nemtsov, a close ally of the new prime minister, remained as deputy prime minister.

Overall, during the first half of 1998, the Russian government faced a mounting financial crisis caused by an inability to collect tax revenues, industrial unrest, and plummeting oil revenues; the stock market fell by more than 50% and the currency came under pressure from international speculators, forcing a hike in interest rates to 150%. Kiriyenko brought the reformist Boris Fedorov and Anatoly Chubais into his government team and in July 1998 Russia received the first half of a £11 billion IMF rescue package, with economic reform conditions attached. However, the government, faced by an obstructive legislature, made limited progress in achieving spending cuts and in August 1998, the rouble was devalued by 20% and a short-term moratorium placed on foreign debt repayments. In late August, President Yeltsin, on his return from holiday, unexpectedly sacked Kiriyenko and the entire government, and sought to restore to office his trusted ally, Viktor Chernomyrdin.

The communist-dominated Duma twice refused to ratify Chernomyrdin's appointment, leaving the country without a government. This forced Yeltsin to nominate as prime minister Yevgeny Primakov, his acting foreign minister and a cautious former spymaster who had served every Soviet and Russian leader since Khrushchev. The Duma endorsed his nomination in September 1998 and a new government was formed. It was notable for the lack of economic reformers in key positions and its inclusion, in charge of the economy, of Yuri Maslyukov, who had been the last head of the Gosplan state planning agency in the USSR.

In early November 1998 the government introduced a cautious economic restructuring programme, which was approved by the Communist-dominated Duma. With food stocks low, the USA promised aid of over 3 million tonnes of grain and meat, while Japan promised an $800 million aid package. GDP was expected to decline by 5% in 1998.

Also in November 1998 Galina Starovoitova, a prominent liberal Russian politician, human rights activist, and opponent of corruption, was shot dead in St Petersburg; and Yury Luzhkov, the popular mayor of Moscow, formed a new centrist movement, Otechestvo (Fatherland).

Yeltsin threw Russian politics into turmoil in May 1999 by sacking the prime minister, Yevgeny Primakov, and the cabinet, as the country's lower house, the Duma, launched into a debate on whether to begin impeachment proceedings against the president. Sergei Stepashin, the interior minister, was named acting prime minister by Yeltsin. Later that month, the Duma confirmed Stepashin as prime minister and cancelled impeachment proceedings against the ailing president.

In June 1999, the Duma passed bills to reform banking and taxation, as demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This was followed by a summit between Russia and Group of Seven (G7) leaders in Cologne, Germany, later in June, who agreed to discuss rescheduling Russia's debt.

Prime Minister Stepashin visited Washington in July 1999 in an attempt to improve his country's relations with the USA. The IMF agreed to lend Russia $4.5 billion.

Boris Yeltsin in August 1999 sacked his fourth government in 18 months, discarding Sergei Stepashin, who had been in office just 82 days. He astonished the world by naming the head of Russia's federal security service, Vladimir Putin, as the next prime minister and his preferred successor. Also in August, Putin was confirmed as the country's new prime minister by the Duma.

Second Chechen War

In August 1999, in Dagestan, a republic in the country's south, Islamic paramilitaries declared independence in an attempt to create a fundamentalist state, prompting a crackdown by the Russian army and a fierce battle for the region's mountain villages, forming the beginning of Russia's second war against Chechnya. In September 1999 an Islamic terrorist bombing campaign claimed around 350 lives, including 118 in an explosion in Moscow, and an explosion in Dagestan. Russia bombed alleged terrorist targets in Chechnya as a prelude to invasion by 30,000 troops. The military campaign was strongly supported by the Russian public. By November 1999 the Russian government claimed that it was close to taking the capital, Groznyy. Yeltsin refused to act on Western criticism of his war with Chechnya which was directed at him when he attended a summit for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Istanbul in November. Despite claims by Chechen guerrillas that they had made some advances in December 1999, Russian forces claimed to have surrounded the capital, Groznyy, and issued an ultimatum to civilians that they must leave or die. After Western protests, and in a bid to deflate international pressure on Moscow, the Russian ultimatum was deferred by a week and it was claimed that the Russian military had arranged two safe corridors and a daytime ceasefire to enable civilians to flee without danger. By the end of January 2000, despite stiff resistance and heavy losses, Russian forces were reported to have taken control of the centre of the Chechen capital, Groznyy, and about 40% of the town.

Responding to increasing international criticism of mass arrests, torture, and killing by the Russian army fighting in Chechnya, at the end of February 2000, Moscow ordered an official investigation into possible war crimes. Permission was given for the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner to go to the region and investigate the allegations for herself. Meanwhile, Russian forces claimed that they had cornered Chechen rebels and killed hundreds, and at the same time reported some of the heaviest losses they had sustained during the five-month conflict.

Yeltsin resigns

Boris Yeltsin resigned as president of the Russian Federation on 31 December 1999. Announcing that he was bowing out to give a younger generation a chance, he apologized to his country for failing to fulfil their hopes. The prime minister and acting president, Vladimir Putin, confirmed that the presidential poll would take place in March 2000. Putin looked like a strong candidate for president, as the party he endorsed, the Unity Party, became the second largest in the Duma in the December general election. Putin made his mark of departure from Yeltsin's rule by sacking some of the ex-president's leading ministers and officials, including Yeltsin's daughter, which suggests that he wanted to cut ties quickly with those holders of Kremlin posts who were tainted with corruption. He promoted a reformer, Mikhail Kasyanov, to first deputy prime minister, and in early January 2000 signed a decree radically changing the national security strategy to focus more upon fighting terrorism and organized crime. It also published a nuclear weapons strategy which was more suspicious of Western powers than the previous strategy. In February 2000 in the new Duma, the Communists and Unity Party, the party closest to the Kremlin, agreed to share most committees between them.

Putin as president

In general elections in March 2000 Vladimir Putin, the acting president, was elected as president of the Russian Federation, and inaugurated in early May. Meanwhile, members of the Council of Europe condemned his campaign against Chechnya, and in April 2000 the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly lifted Russia's voting rights and proposed suspending Russia from the Council. Russia vowed to continue the campaign, however President Putin, in a conciliatory gesture, told the EU that he would present a plan to settle the situation. At his inauguration in May 2000, Putin asked for approval of his choice of prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov. Approval was given in May 2000, and Kasyanov was appointed to head a new government made up of several reformers, as well as some ministers who were close to Yeltsin.

Putin made his first official trip to the West since his election when he visited London, England, in April 2000. A few days earlier, Russia's Duma had ratified START II, the arms-control treaty which had been ratified by the USA in 1996, and which will reduce both countries' nuclear arsenals. Meanwhile, Putin rejected a plan from the Chechen president, Aslan Maskhadov, and the battle in Chechnya continued. By mid-May, 2,233 Russian soldiers had been killed and 6,575 wounded in the fighting since August 1999. The UN Human Rights Commission criticized Russia for using disproportionate force and for attacking civilians during the war, and requested that UN investigators be permitted to investigate the area.

Control of the regions

Despite continuing claims that Russia was in complete control of Chechnya, there was continuing violence in the region. Casualties included the deputy to Moscow's civilian administration in Groznyy, Sergei Zverev, and the mayor of Groznyy, Supyan Makhchayev, both of whom were the targets of attacks made by rebels. In spite of local resistance, President Putin imposed direct presidential rule on Chechnya in June 2000, unveiling his plans to rebuild the country's shattered economy. Retaliation ensued, however, in the form of five suicide bomber attacks on Russian-controlled towns in Chechnya on 3 July 2000. The attacks resulted in 42 Russian soldiers and 11 civilians being killed. A month later, a bomb exploded in the centre of Moscow, killing seven people and injuring around 100. Although the Chechen president, Aslan Maskjadov, denied that his guerrillas were responsible, popular Russian opinion blamed Chechen rebels. President Putin tried to prevent anti-Chechen hysteria by vowing to see through the military campaign in Chechnya. The leader of the Chechen defence of Groznyy until February, Lechi Islamov, was captured by Russian forces in August.

Putin's plan to create tighter control over Russia's regions was ratified in July 2000 as bills were passed to replace the regional governors with appointed legislators, and to strip the governors of their immunity from prosecution. The governors, who made up parliament's upper chamber, reluctantly voted in favour of this motion, as their opposition was likely to be vetoed by the lower chamber (the Duma), and by voting in favour, a confrontation with Putin was avoided. The reforms were intended to make the governors work more effectively, as well as affording moer power to Moscow, and, because they also included a new tax-reform package, they were intended to attract foreign investment.

Disaster in 2000

Russian president Vladimir Putin faced criticism from his own country after he failed to return from his holiday when 118 men died on board a Russian nuclear-powered submarine, the Kursk, after it plunged to the bottom of the Barents Sea on 13 August 2000 during a naval exercise. Russia claimed that the accident was the result of a collision with a foreign submarine, and after several failed rescue attempts, accepted offers of foreign help, although too late to save the men on board. When foreign rescue divers finally reached the craft, they reported that it appeared that all crew members had died almost at once. The Russian government announced a policy of reducing forces by a third and of increasing pay for soldiers in an attempt to boost the Russian military. Only a week later, the Ostankino television tower in Moscow, one of the symbols of the capital, suffered a fire which gutted the interior of the tower, the world's second tallest free-standing structure. Three people were killed and programmes to viewers in the capital were halted for several days.

Summit meetings

In July 2000, the presidents of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan met in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and pledged cooperation in fighting terrorism, religious extremism, and drug trafficking. The following October, Russia agreed with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan to form a ‘Eurasian Economic Union’.

In November 2000, Russia's security council agreed to reduce its armed forces by 20% - 600,000 people - by 2005.

Nationalist symbols

In December 2000, the Duma voted to restore the old Soviet national anthem, though with different words, and re-instate the tsarist flag and double-eagle crest as national emblems.

Chechnya

In January 2001, Putin announced plans to withdraw 80,000 troops from Chechnya, cutting Russian forces there by 75%. Overall control of the war in Chechnya would be transferred to the secret police. 3,500 troops left Chechnya in March. The same month, three bombs blamed on Chechen rebels killed 24 people and injured over 140 in southern Russia. In response, Putin replaced his defence and interior ministers with personal allies.

Mounting tensions with the USA

Differences between Russia and the USA had mounted during 2000 as President Putin had tried to rebuild Russian state power. He had visited former Soviet allies from Vietnam to Cuba, cultivated European leaders, and sought to re-energize the Russian armed forces. In February 2001, a US FBI agent was arrested for spying for Russia, and in March the USA expelled 6 Russian diplomats, giving a further 51 notice to leave. Russia retaliated by expelling 4 US diplomats, and giving another 46 notice to leave. Earlier in March, Russia had confirmed it would resume conventional arms sales to Iran, and also help it to complete a nuclear-power plant. The USA called on Russia not to supply Iran with advanced weapons.

Media empire dismantled

In April 2001, Gazprom, Russia's largest company and the world's biggest supplier of natural gas, took over NTV, the last national independent television channel, firing the director and top managers. About 400 journalists went on strike, and barred the doors of the television studios, claiming Gazprom's close connection to the Kremlin was a threat to free reporting. Public demonstrations occurred in Moscow and St Petersburg. Security forces secured the premises for the new management, and 40 journalists resigned and set up a new channel.

NTV was part of the Media-Most group, owned by Vladimir Gusinsky. Two of the group's leading publications were also shut down in April. Gusinsky, who was accused of fraud and money-laundering, was in exile in Spain, where a Spanish court refused to extradite him.

New party formed

Liberal right-wing reformers, led by former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, consolidated themselves in the Union of Right Forces (SPS), in May.

Government extends influence over big business

In May 2001, the Kremlin tightened its control over Gazprom by orchestrating the dismissal of its long-time chief executive. He was replaced by a senior government official associated with President Putin.

US missile tests denounced

Russia denounced a missile test carried out by the USA on 15 July 2001, and accused it of threatening to undermine international efforts opposed to a new arms race. The test, 232 km/144 mi above the Pacific Ocean, appeared to be paving the way for further testing of the controversial US National Missile Defense (NMD) system. President Putin reiterated his concern that the NMD would breach the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, considered one of the pillars of post-war arms control.

Summit with North Korea

President Putin met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in the Kremlin on 4 August 2001. Putin pledged economic assistance to help modernize the North Korean economy, and Kim Jong Il promised no new missile tests until at least 2003.

The USA increased pressure on Russia in August 2001 by issuing what amounted to a November deadline for Moscow to agree to US President George W Bush's plan for a missile defence shield. As work was due to commence in late August to clear the ground for an eventual missile-defence testing site in Alaska, the USA insisted it would withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty unilaterally if necessary. Russia announced it was willing to make certain amendments to the treaty.

Anti-terrorism coalition

In the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks on the USA, President Putin pledged support for US military action in Afghanistan. He said he would support the forces of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance in their fight against the Taliban.

Further challenge to press freedom

Russia's last independent television channel with a national reach, TV-6, was shut down on 11 January 2002 in a surprise court decision by judges in Moscow. The court ordered TV-6 to be closed on grounds of bankruptcy, despite the station's claims that it was profitable. Bailiffs closed the network on 21 January, and handed its place on the airwaves to a sports channel. TV-6's coverage of the war in Chechnya and official corruption had angered the government, and it was suspected that the closure had been authorized by the Kremlin.

In May, President Putin signed a star signed a strategic arms-control agreement with George W Bush pledging to reduce long-range nuclear warheads by two-thirds over ten years. He also oversaw Russian commitment to a join council with NATO to cooperate on terrorism and international crisis management.

In the same month, 34 people, including 12 children, were killed in a bomb explosion during a parade in Kaspiisk in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, near the border with the neighbouring republic of Chechnya. Putin blamed Chechen separatists for the attack.

Caucasia

Kaliningrad (oblast)

Naberezhniye Chelny

Russia

Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic

Tatarstan