Russia

11/1/25

Overview

Vladimir Putin took over the Presidency of Russia, replacing Boris Yeltsin in 1999. Since then, Putin has consolidated his power and sought to reverse what he depicts as a shameful chapter in Russian history in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. Most infamously, he sought to re-extend Russian control of portions of Ukraine by force with the Russian Invasion of February 2022. Join Active Minds as we examine the history and present situation of Russia.

Key Lecture Points

  • After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin, set Russia on a course toward democratization and free market capitalism.  However, the corruption and graft of his tenure led some to label Russia a kleptocracy dominated by oligarchs, meaning a few politically connected people who became immensely wealthy and powerful from the assets of the former Soviet Union.
  • In 1999, Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin, an unknown former KGB officer, as prime minister, later naming him as his successor. Putin promised to restore order, stability, and national pride after the turmoil of the 1990s, quickly consolidating power and re-centering the state around his leadership.
  • Under Putin, Russia saw an era of prosperity fuelled largely by its oil and gas reserves. However, domestic opposition movements to Putin’s grip on the Russian government have flared up occasionally.
  • Internationally, Putin also began a push back against what he saw as the ‘overreach” of NATO into the former Russian sphere of influence.  In 2008, Russia invaded the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, after it began a process of seeking NATO membership. And in 2014, Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian enclave of Crimea and sent forces into the Eastern Donbas region in support of Russian separatists in Ukraine.
  • In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with 200,000 troops supported by Russian airstrikes invading sovereign Ukraine from north, south and east. Hesitant to undertake a direct confrontation of Russia in Ukraine, the US has not deployed troops to Ukraine, but has opposed Russia but providing arms to Ukraine, imposing stricter sanctions on Russia and bolstering its troop presence in NATO countries bordering Ukraine.
  • Over twenty-five years in power, Putin has blurred the line between himself and the Russian state. Through constitutional changes, state propaganda, and the silencing of opposition leaders like Alexei Navalny, he has built a system in which personal loyalty outweighs Russia’s institutions.

Discussion Questions

  • Describe 3 themes from Czarist and Soviet history that continue under Putin.
  • Why do you think centralized authority persists in Russia even after the fall of communism?
  • How has the war in Ukraine reshaped Russia’s identity, both domestically and in its relationship with the West?
  • Young adults who were born in 1990 when the Soviet Union had just ended and older adults who were born in 1945 just at the end of WWII have different perspectives on the Soviet Union and Russia. When were you born in relation to the Soviet Union? How do you think this affects your perceptions of the new Russia? Of Putin?

More to Explore

Books For Further Reading

  • Garrels, Anne.  Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia. Picador, USA, 2017. 240 pages. This NPR correspondent describes how life for average Russians has evolved in Chelyabinsk, a thousand miles east of Moscow and home of the Soviet nuclear program, from Soviet days to the present.  She provides an intimate portrayal of “Middle Russia” and why it remains loyal to Putin.
  • Gessen, Masha.  The Man Without a Face:  The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin.  Riverhead Trade, 2013.  373 pages. Traces Putin’s life from boyhood to the presidency.
  • Galeotti, Mark. Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine. Osprey Publishing, 2024. 400pages. Scholarly portrait of Russia’s 21st century conflicts, demonstrating how Putin has turned war into the engine of his regime.
  • Roxburgh, Angus.  The Strongman: Vladimir Putin and the Struggle for Russia.  I.B. Tauris, 2013.  368 pages.  Roxburgh gives an insider’s view of how Putin changed from reformer to autocrat.  The author was for a time an adviser to the Kremlin on press relations.
  • Schoen, Douglas E., Evan Roth Smith (with). Putin’s Master Plan: How to Destroy Europe, Divide NATO, and Restore Russian Power and Global Influence.  Encounter Books, 2016. 200 pages.  The author provides an analysis of Putin’s strategy and vision to create a new empire in Europe and challenge the US.