Prime opposition leader Alexey Navalny was barred from the race due to a previous embezzlement conviction. Presently, the government seems to lose support. Mass protests around the country, especially in Moscow, call for more democracy. The biggest low in approval ratings occurred in July , when Putin passed a controversial pension reform. Raising the official retirement age to 60 for women and 65 for men was not greeted with enthusiasm among the population.
This tour is a perfect choice for those who wish to get to know Moscow in depth. One of the highlights of this package is the KGB history tour which gives an interesting perspective on the Cold War. You will also have time for exploring the city on your own or doing extra sightseeing.
It is our most complete and popular tour of Moscow and St. In addition to visiting all the emblematic places, you will also have free time for your own discoveries. On your free nights you can watch the shows at the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters or a folkloric show. We invite you on an exciting trip to Lake Baikal - the youngest ocean in the world.
Leave all of your stress back in the city while exploring the incredible Baikal nature and enjoying magnificent views. We invite you to become a fan of our company on Facebook and read Russian news and travel stories. To become a fan, click here. The club was created to be a place for everyone with an interest in Russia to get to know each other and share experiences, stories, pictures and advice.
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To opt out of non-essential cookies, please click here. By continuing to use our Website, you accept our use of cookies, the terms of our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. I agree. He engaged in reforms ending the Soviet-era price controls, drastically cut state spending and introduced a new foreign trade regime in This had an extreme negative effect on a big part of the population: those who relied on state-controlled wages and prices or state subsidies and welfare programs suddenly found themselves penniless.
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More to explore. The Russian Empire essentially sought to make everyone in the territory Russian. This policy was only marginally successful, however, and was especially difficult to implement in the outer regions. Under the Soviet Union, the policy of cultural assimilation had less to do with becoming Russian and more to do with being part of the Soviet Union, what could be thought of as Sovietization.
The Soviet government organized the country as a federation, where territories within the country had varying degrees of autonomy see Figure 3. These SSRs did not represent all of the ethnic diversity present in Russia nor did they provide these territories with autonomy. You might recognize the names of these republics as they gradually became independent states after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Under Soviet Rule, some policies of Russification expanded. The government also sent many Russians into majority non-Russian areas to further unify the country. Other ethnic groups, particularly those perceived as troublemakers by the government, were deported from their ancestral homelands and resettled elsewhere.
The ethnic map of the former Soviet Union today, in part, reflects this multicultural history and the legacy of resettlement policies see Figure 3. Over 3 million people were deported to Siberia between and , a large portion of whom died from disease or malnutrition.
Others were deported from the Baltic area or from the area near the Black Sea. Although Russia today is comprised mostly of people who speak Russian and identify with the Russian ethnicity, it contains different ethnic groups speaking over different languages.
The largest minority groups in Russia are the Tatars, representing around 4 percent of the population with over 5 million people, and Ukrainians at around 1. Other ethnic groups, like the Votes near Saint Petersburg, have only a few dozen members remaining. Because of the Soviet resettlement policies, the former Soviet republics have sizable Russian minorities.
Kazakhstan and Latvia, for example, are almost one-quarter Russian. This has often led to tension within Russia as minority groups have sought independence and outside of Russia as ethnic groups have clashed over leadership. In Ukraine in particular, tension between the Ukrainian population and Russian minority has remained high and represents a broader tension between the Eastern European regions that are more closely aligned with Russia and those that seek greater connectivity and trade with Western Europe.
Eastern Ukraine is largely comprised of Russian speakers, whileWestern Ukraine predominantly speaks the state language of Ukrainian see Figure 3. Overall, around three-quarters of people in Ukraine identify with the Ukrainian ethnicity. In , the tension between the two groups escalated as then-president Victor Yanukovych backed away from a deal to increase connections with the European Union and instead sought closer ties with Russia.
In Western Ukraine, people engaged in widespread protests prompting the government to sign a set of anti-protest laws, while in Eastern Ukraine, most supported the government. Ultimately, Yanukovych was removed from office prompting military intervention from Russia. Specifically, Russia sought control of Crimea, an area that had been annexed by the Russian Empire and was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic until the s when it was transferred to Ukraine.
After the protests, a majority of the people of Crimea supported joining Russia and it was formally annexed by Russian forces. The region is now controlled by Russia see Figure 3. Chechnya is largely comprised of Chechens, a distinct Sunni Muslim nation. The territory opposed Russian conquest of the region in the 19th century but was forcefully incorporated into the Soviet Union in the early 20th century. Although Chechnya sought independence from Russia, sometimes through violent opposition, it has remained under Russian control following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Dagestan has been the site of several Islamic insurgencies seeking separation from Russia. Ossetia remains divided between a northern portion controlled by Russia and a southern region controlled by Georgia.
In an area as large and as ethnically diverse as Russia, controlling the territory in a way that is acceptable to all of its residents has proven difficult. In many large countries, the farther away you get from the capital area and large cities, the more cultural differences you find.
Some governments have embraced this cultural difference, creating autonomous regions that function largely independently though remain part of the larger state.
The Soviet Government, led by Lenin and later by Stalin, advocated a communist system. In a capitalist system, market forces dictate prices according to supply and demand. Those who control the means of production, known as the bourgeoisie in the Marxist philosophy, are much wealthier than the workers, known as the proletariat. In a communist system, however, the means of production are communally owned, and the intended result is that there are no classes of rich and poor and no groups of landowners and landless workers.
In reality, no government practices pure capitalism or pure communism, but rather, governments are situated along a continuum see Figure 3. Anarchy, the absence of government control, exists only in temporary situations, such as when a previous government is overthrown and political groups are vying for power. In most Western countries, a mix of capitalism and socialism, where economic and social systems are communally owned, is practiced to varying degrees. Denmark, for example, which has been consistently ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world, has a market economy with few business regulations but government funded universal healthcare, unemployment compensation, and maternity leave, and most higher education is free.
The United States is largely capitalist, but the government provides retirement benefits through the social security system, funds the military, and supports the building and maintenance of the interstate highway system. All governments must address three basic questions of economics: what to produce, how to produce, and for whom to produce.
The answers to these questions vary depending on the state and the situation. In the Soviet system, the government dictated economic policy, rather than relying on free market mechanisms and the law of supply and demand.
This required the government to intervene at all levels of the economy. The prices of goods needed to be set by the central government, the production levels of goods needed to be determined, the coordination of manufacturers and distributors was needed — everything that is traditionally accomplished through private individuals and companies in a capitalist model was the responsibility of the Soviet government. To coordinate such a wide array of goods and services, long-term planning was needed.
The Soviet government instituted a series of five-year plans which established long-term goals and emphasized quotas for the production of goods. This system lacked flexibility, however, and was often inefficient in its production and distribution of goods.
The Soviet government had two principle objectives: first, to accelerate industrialization, and secondly, to collectivize agriculture. The collectivization of agriculture, though intended to increase crop yields and make distribution of food more efficient, was ultimately a failure. By the early s, 90 percent of agricultural land in the Soviet Union had become collectivized, meaning owned by a collection of people rather than individuals.
Every element of the production of agriculture, from the tractors to the livestock, was collectivized rather than individually owned. A family could not even have its own vegetable garden. Ideally, under such a system, all farmers would work equally and would share the benefits equally. Unfortunately, the earnings of collective farmers was typically less than private farmers.
This led to a reduction in agricultural output as well as a reduction in the number of livestock.
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