Study Guide week 4

1.   How many years does the President serve? How many terms?

2.   What is the Prime Minister’s position?

3.   Name the two parts of the Russian Legislature.

4.   What is the Institution of Presidential Representatives? Why was it created?

5.   Who hand-picked Dmitri Medvedev as the new Russian President?

6.   What are two political parties that have influence in Russian politics besides United Russia?

7.   What is the party “United Russia”?

8.   When are the parliamentary elections? (go on the Internet to find this)

9.   When are the presidential elections?  (go on the Internet to find this)

10.                 Who are the President and Prime Minister of Russia?

Putin 

11.  Why is Putin described as a law and order man?

12.  Did Putin have any idea that he was being groomed for President? How did he find out?

13.  Why did Yeltsin resign early?

14.  Why did the people want Putin as President?

15.  Why did he become Yeltsin’s candidate for President?

16.  Why was Putin so intent on stopping the rebels in Chechnya?

17.  What is the Vertikal of Control?

18.  How did Putin attack the Oligarchy?

19.  What are Siloviki?

Aslund, Anders. 2007 Russia’s Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed. Washington, D.C.: Peterson Institute for International Economics

Chapter Six

1.    1.  How does Aslund describe Putin?

2.   2. What was “ Unity”?

3.   3.  How did the oligarchs have influence on politics in Russia?

4.   4.  What was Putin’s first act as acting president of Russia?

5.   5.  What does “sovereign democracy” mean in Putin-speak?

6.   6.  Who was Vladimir Gusinsky and what happened to him? Why?

7.   7.  How did Putin react to the Kursk submarine tragedy?

8.   8.  What did Boris Berezovsky do?

9.   9.   What is Putin’s “Vertikal of Control”?

10.10.  How did Putin control the regional governors?

11. 11.   What were the three major goals of Putin’s first term?

12. 12.  Describe Putin’s first-term government.

13.  13.  What was the result of Putin’s dictatorship of law?

Chapter Seven

1.    1.  What is “ United Russia”?  How was it formed? Why?

2.    2.   Why didn’t the Russians want to vote in the 2004 election?

3.   3.  How did the Kremlin get the Russians to take interest in this election?

4.   4.  Why were the Duma elections described as “Free but not fair”?

5.   5.  Were the presidential elections fair?

6.   6.  Why was the selection of Mikhail Fradkov as PM significant as a predictor of Putin’s second term?

7.   7.  What happened in Beslan?

8.   8.  How was the Russian governments reaction to the Beslan crisis descriptive of the Putin government?

9.   9.  Was corruption a factor in the Putin government?  Why?

10. 10.  How did Putin try to control the Ukrainian presidential election?

1111.   How did Russia anger both the US and the EU?

1212.  What is a current military issue between the US and Russia?

1313.  Name 3 actions that Putin took to make Russia more authoritarian?