Report On The Russian Presidential Elections March 26 2000

Assesses the Russian Presidential elections held on March 26, 2000 and won by Vladimir Putin. Panel members include: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Ph.D., counselor, Center for Strategic and International Studies, former National Security Advisor.; Thomas E. Graham, Jr. Ph.D., senior associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C.; Michael A. McFaul, Ph.D., senior associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C.; and Steven R. Sestanovich, Ambassador-at-Large and Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for the New Independent States, U.S. Department of State.

Twice in the winter of 1999-2000, citizens of the Russian Federation flocked to their neighborhood voting stations and scratched their ballots in an atmosphere of uncertainty, rancor, and fear. This book is a tale of these two elections—one for the 450-seat Duma, the other for President. Despite financial crisis, a national security emergency in Chechnya, and cabinet instability, Russian voters unexpectedly supported the status quo. The elected lawmakers prepared to cooperate with the executive branch, a gift that had eluded President Boris Yeltsin since he imposed a post-Soviet constitution by referendum in 1993. When Yeltsin retired six months in advance of schedule, the presidential mantle went to Vladimir Putin—a career KGB officer who fused new and old ways of doing politics. Putin was easily elected President in his own right. This book demonstrates key trends in an extinct superpower, a troubled country in whose stability, modernization, and openness to the international community the West still has a huge stake.

Russia in Transition, Volume 1

Why has Russian democracy apparently survived and even strengthened under a presidential system, when so many other presidential regimes have decayed into authoritarian rule? And what are the origins of presidential power in modern Russia? Thomas M. Nichols argues that the answer lies in the relationship between political institutions and trust: where society, and consequently politics, is fractious and divided, structural safeguards inherent in presidentialism actually serve to strengthen democratic behavior. The Russian presidency is not the cause of social turmoil in Russia, but rather a successful response to it. This book's emphasis on the social origins of Russian politics explains not only the unexpected survival of Russian democracy, but encourages a reconsideration of the relationship between institutions, social conditions, and democracy.