| Russian President Vladimir Putin pounced to an easy victory for a second term, further consolidating his ever tightening grip on power. During the election, Putin limited the access of his opponents to the media and rigorously harassed their campaigns. He already took command of Parliament in December and has appointed a new Cabinet already. He won 71.2 percent of the vote according to the Central Election Commission in an announcement on Monday. The candidate representing the Communist Party brought in a surprising 15 percent of the vote, suggesting that there remains some fondness for the powers that were of the Soviet Era.
The assessment of the level of corruption during Putin's presidency:
By 1999, i.e the last year of Yeltsin's presidency, Russia was one of the most corrupted countries in the world. In a rating by the international agency "Transparency International" on the corruption index for 1999, Russian Federation shared 82 - 83 spot along with Ecuador out of 99 countries.
There is an opinion that, during Putin's presidency, the corruption level has increased in comparison to the corruption level during Yeltsin's era. According to research of the INDEM fund, during the period 2001- 2005, corruption levels have increased in the sphere of power and business by almost 10 times (from 33.5 to 316 billion dollars which surpasses the expenditure of the federal budget of Russia for the year 2005, everyday corruption - has grown by 4 times and the average bribe norm increased from 10.2 thousand dollars to 135.8 thousand dollars for the same period.)
According to the opinion of a senior research officer of the Peterson Institute of International Economics, Anders Aslund, "everything around Putin is absolutely corrupted".
In February 2008, B. Nemtsov of the party "Union of Right Forces" and budding politician V.Milov have published the report "Putin. Results", in which they asserted that one of the most negative outcomes of Putin's presidency was the substantial increase in corruption levels. This subject was elaborated in two more reports by the same authors: "Putin. Results. 10 Years" (published by the movement "Solidarity" in June, 2010) and "Putin. Corruption" (published by the People's Freedom Party in March, 2011, politician V.Ryzhkov was amongst the authors).
According to the data of Rosstat, the number of crimes registered under the category "bribe" has grown from 7000 in 2000 to 131000 in 2009.
Some western businessmen asserted that, they experienced difficulties in doing business in Russia owing to a number of legislative restrictions and actions of officials. According to the opinion of Sergey Mitrokhin, the subject " state-owned corporate raid" gained urgency during the second term of Putin.
According to data, provided by the international agency "Transparency International", the corruption index (from a domestic and foreign expert's point of view) published in September 2007, Russia, during the last year of Putin's governance (as president) has moved down in the list by 17 points (143 place in the world): Russia appeared, on a corruption level, to be in the same place with countries such as Indonesia, Gambia and Togo. In CIS, according to the agency, the situation of corruption is worse in Azerbaijan and all Central Asia. In 2010, in the corruption index, Russia has fallen to 154 place in the world.
According to the report of "Novaya Gazeta", investigations on corruptions in the1990s, including the charges of the misappropriation of tranche (credit) of the IMF in August, 1998 (4782 billion dollars), were not conducted and international investigations were sabotaged. In particular, according to critics, it became evident how actively Russian leadership had acted in 2001 to protect the former administrator of the Kremlin, Pavel Borodin, from being charged by the USA and Switzerland laws for money-laundering and other frauds.
Foreign policy:
In June 2000, "The Concept of foreign policy of Russian Federation" was adopted by the Decree of Putin. According to this document, the main objectives of foreign policy were: ensuring reliable security of the country, actions on universal processes in order to form a stable, fair and democratic world order, creation of a favorable external environment for the progressive development of Russia, the formation of a good neighbourhood zone along the perimeter of Russian borders, search for agreements and common interests with foreign countries and interstate associations in resolving the issues, categorized as national priorities of Russia, the protection of rights and the interests of Russian citizens and fellow countrymen abroad, promoting a positive perception of the Russian Federation in world.
During the period 2000 - 2007, Putin took part in the "G8" summits in Okinawa (Japan, 2000), in Genoa (Italy, 2001), Kananaskis (Canada, 2002), Evian-les Bians (France, 2003), Sea Island (USA, 2004), Gleneagles (Great Britain, 2005) St.Petersburg (Russia, 2006) & Heiligendamm (Germany, 2007). During September 6 - 8, 2000, Putin participated in the Millennium Summit (official name of the "United Nations in the 21st century") in New York. In June 2001, Putin, for the first time, met US president George Bush (Jr) in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.
During the presidential election in the Ukraine in the end of 2004, the Russian Government supported Victor Yanukovych – a candidate of the Party of Regions of the Ukraine, projecting for economic cooperation with Russia within the frameworks of the Common Economic Space (ЕЭП) and giving the Russian Language the status of second language in the state.
On October 14, 2004, during a visit to Beijing, Putin signed an agreement on the transfer of the islands Tarabarov and half of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island (total 337sqkm) to the Peoples Republic of China; the demarcation of the border in the given conflict area began only after this. The territory of the disputed islands was divided between the two countries.
On February 24, 2005, Putin held a meeting with Bush in Bratislava (Slovakia) , the main topic was the situation of democracy in Russia. |
