The politics of Russia take place in the framework of the federal semi-presidential republic of Russia. According to the Constitution of Russia, the President of Russia is head of state, and of a multi-party system with executive power exercised by the government, headed by the Prime Minister, who is appointed by the President with the parliament's approval. Legislative power is vested in the two houses of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, while the President and the government issue numerous legally binding by-laws. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, Russia has seen serious challenges in its efforts to forge a political system to follow nearly seventy-five years of Soviet governance. For instance, leading figures in the legislative and executive branches have put forth opposing views of Russia's political direction and the governmental instruments that should be used to follow it. That conflict reached a climax in September and October 1993, when President Boris Yeltsin used military force to dissolve the parliament and called for new legislative elections. This event marked the end of Russia's first constitutional period, which was defined by the much-amended constitution adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1978. A new constitution, creating a strong presidency, was approved by referendum in December 1993.
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of 20,368,759 km2 (7,864,422 sq mi) and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. The CIS encourages cooperation in economic, political, and military affairs and has certain powers relating to the coordination of trade, finance, lawmaking, and security, including cross-border crime prevention.
The modern history of Russia began with the Russian Republic of the Soviet Union gaining more political and economical autonomy amidst the imminent dissolution of the USSR during 1988–1991, proclaiming its sovereignty inside the Union in June 1990, and electing its first President Boris Yeltsin a year later. The Russian SFSR was the largest republic of the Soviet Union, but it had no significant independence before, being the only Soviet republic to not have its own branch of the Communist Party.
The president of the Russian Federation is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. It is the highest office in Russia.
Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed was a Soviet and Russian military officer and politician who held senior positions in the Airborne Troops before running for president in the 1996 Russian presidential election. He did not win, but placed third behind incumbent Boris Yeltsin and the Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, with roughly 14% of the vote nation-wide. Lebed later served as the Secretary of the Security Council in the Yeltsin administration, and eventually became the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, the second largest Russian region. He served four years in the latter position, until his death following a Mi-8 helicopter crash.
The republics are one type of federal subject of the Russian Federation. 21 republics are internationally recognized as part of Russia; another is under its de facto control. The original republics were created as nation states for ethnic minorities. The indigenous ethnicity that gives its name to the republic is called the titular nationality. However, due to centuries of Russian migration, a titular nationality may not be a majority of its republic's population.
The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Soviet Union's Communist Party to forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was Soviet President and General Secretary of the Communist Party at the time. The coup leaders consisted of top military and civilian officials, including Vice President Gennady Yanayev, who together formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP). They opposed Gorbachev's reform program, were angry at the loss of control over Eastern European states and fearful of the USSR's New Union Treaty which was on the verge of being signed. The treaty was to decentralize much of the central Soviet government's power and distribute it among its fifteen republics.
Russia and the United States maintain one of the most important, critical and strategic foreign relations in the world. Both nations have shared interests in nuclear safety and security, nonproliferation, counterterrorism, and space exploration. Due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, relations became very tense after the United States imposed sanctions against Russia. Russia placed the United States on a list of "unfriendly countries", along with Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, European Union members, NATO members, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Micronesia and Ukraine.
The Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR and since 1992 Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation was the supreme government institution in the Russian SFSR and in the Russian Federation from 16 May 1990 to 21 September 1993. Elected on 4 March 1990 for a period of five years, it was dissolved by presidential decree during the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 and ended de facto when the Russian White House was attacked on 4 October 1993. The Congress played an important role in some of the most important events in the history of Russia during this period, such as the declaration of independence of Russia from the USSR, the rise of Boris Yeltsin, and economic reforms.
The War of Laws was the series of conflicts between the central government of the Soviet Union and the governments of the Soviet republics during the so-called "parade of sovereignties" in the last years of the Soviet Union (1989–1991), which eventually contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. When Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to formally release their control of the republics, the individual governments began to reassert their own sovereignty and dominance in their respective areas. That included making their own laws separate from those of the Soviet central government and refusing to pay taxes. These events worsened the Soviet Union's economic disintegration and was a major factor in its 1991 collapse.
Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy is a Russian politician and former Soviet military officer who served as the only vice president of Russia from 1991 to 1993. He was proclaimed acting president following Boris Yeltsin's impeachment during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, in which he played a key role.
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the first President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the process of the disintegration of the Soviet Union (USSR), which resulted in the end of the country as a sovereign state and its federal government, which in turn resulted in its 15 constituent republics gaining full independence on 26 December 1991. It brought an end to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's effort to reform the Soviet political and economic system in an attempt to stop a period of political stalemate and economic backslide. The Soviet Union had experienced internal stagnation and ethnic separatism. Although highly centralized until its final years, the country was made up of 15 top-level republics that served as homelands for different ethnicities. By late 1991, amid a catastrophic political crisis, with several republics already departing the Union and the waning of centralized power, the leaders of three of its founding members, the Russian, Byelorussian, and Ukrainian SSRs, declared that the Soviet Union no longer existed. Eight more republics joined their declaration shortly thereafter. Gorbachev resigned in December 1991 and what was left of the Soviet parliament voted to end itself.
The presidency of Boris Yeltsin began with his first inauguration on 10 July 1991, and ended on 31 December 1999 when he announced his resignation. A referendum held on 17 March 1991 approved the creation of the post of president of Russia; Yeltsin was elected Russia's first president in a presidential election held on 12 June 1991.
A sovereignty referendum was held in Tatarstan, Russia, on 21 March 1992. Voters were asked whether they approved of Tatarstan being a sovereign state.
The Vladimir Zhirinovsky 1996 presidential campaign was the election campaign of Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky in the 1996 election.
Valery Antonovich Makharadze was a politician in Russia who held a number of senior posts during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, including deputy prime minister. He was removed from the latter office with the dissolution of the cabinet of Boris Yeltsin and Yegor Gaidar and the creation of Viktor Chernomyrdin's first cabinet.
George H. W. Bush, whose term as president lasted from 1989 until 1993, had extensive experience with US foreign policy. Unlike his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, he downplayed vision and emphasized caution and careful management. He had quietly disagreed with many of Reagan's foreign policy decisions and tried to build his own policies. His main foreign policy advisors were Secretaries of State James Baker, a longtime friend, and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. Key geopolitical events that occurred during Bush's presidency were:
The Boris Yeltsin presidential campaign, 1996 was the reelection campaign of Russian President Boris Yeltsin in the 1996 election.
The United Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States was a short-lived military entity associated with the Commonwealth of Independent States. It was created in 1992 after the demise of the Soviet Union, and was intended to be the continuation of the Soviet Armed Forces and to hold control over the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons.
