The Russia that Putin has remade according to his vision

Income from Russia's rich natural resources, the main of which are oil and gas, allowed the country to overcome the economic collapse it faced in 1998, but the collapse of oil prices in 2014 put an end to the prosperity that lasted for several years.

Gazprom continues to supply the European continent with a significant part of its gas needs.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who has dominated Russian politics since 2000, has strengthened his power over public institutions and the media, which has recently been accompanied by a rise in nationalist sentiment and a rise in anti-Western sentiment.

As a result, he launched a large-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 with the aim of strengthening Russia's dominance over neighboring countries.

Guide

President: Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin has become the dominant political figure in Russia since his election as president in 2000, he held the presidential post for two terms, followed by four years as prime minister, before resuming the post of president in 2012 and being re-elected in 2018.

After Putin's re-election in mock elections, the Russian authorities strengthened their control over the media and nipped all opposition movements in the bud.

Putin is also taking a clearly nationalist approach and has revived memories of Soviet-era power in the country to gain support inside the country.

Putin presents himself as a strong leader who saved Russia from the political, economic, and social crises that it witnessed in the 90s of the last century and, in his opinion, defended the fundamental interests of Russia, especially in the face of the West.

But his opponents say that he undermined state institutions, stopped their democratic development, and consolidated the dominance of a small and wealthy elite in the country.

Mass media

The Russian television space is dominated by channels managed directly by the state or owned by companies with close ties to the Kremlin.

The government controls The First channel and First Russia, two of the three main national channels, while the state-owned giant Gazprom, managed by a Putin confidant, owns NTV.

Television is the main source of news for most Russians, and there is an emerging pay-TV sector.

Although the digital space in Russia is less subject to strict censorship, the government has recently expanded the circle of control of this space in order to limit the influence and power of Internet giants such as Google and Facebook.

Important resorts in the history of Russia

1547: Prince Ivan IV of Moscow (nicknamed Ivan the Terrible) becomes the first sovereign to bear the title of Tsar of Russia.

From 1689 to 1725: Tsar Peter the Great undertakes major reforms.

From 1798 to 1815: Russia participates in the European Union against France led by Napoleon, defeats the Napoleonic invasion of 1812, and contributes to its overthrow.

1853-1857: Russia fails in its attempt to occupy the territories belonging to the declining Ottoman Empire and is defeated in the Crimean War.

From 1904 to 1905: the Russian expansion in Chinese Manchuria leads to the beginning of the war with Japan, as well as the beginning of the revolution of 1905 which forces Tsar Nicholas II to adopt a Constitution and create a Parliament called Duma.

1914: the Russian-Austrian rivalry in the Balkans contributed to the outbreak of the First World War, in which Russia fought on the side of Great Britain and France against Germany, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire.

1917: Tsar Nicholas II abdicates and the Bolshevik communists led by Lenin overthrow the Provisional government and take power.

From 1918 to 1922: civil war between the Communist Red Army and the anti-communist forces of Belarus.

1922: the communists founded the Soviet Union on the ruins of the Russian Empire.

1941: Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union. The Soviets resist the invaders and drive them out and more than 20 million people die.

1945: the victory of the Allies over Nazi Germany, to which the USSR contributed greatly, was followed by the domination of the USSR over Eastern and Central Europe and the Balkans and the beginning of the Cold War with the West.

1953: the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin leads to the relaxation of some repressive restrictions, but the domination of the Communist Party continues.

1991: Russia becomes independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The formation of the CIS with Ukraine and Belarus, a Union to which most of the former Soviet republics will eventually join.

2000: President Boris Yeltsin resigns and Prime Minister Putin takes over the presidency which initiates the transition from a democratic approach and cooperation with the West to a nationalist and authoritarian policy.

2014: Russia occupies the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

2015: Russian military intervention in Syria in favor of the Assad regime, which tipped the scales in favor of Assad.

2022: Russia invades Ukraine, and the West responds with severe sanctions and an unprecedented crisis since the end of the Cold War erupts between Russia and the West.