Citizens,+Society,+and+the+State

**-__Nationality__ – most important – 80% are Russian but also Tatars, Ukrainians, and Armenians** **-Organized the country into a federation with autonomous regions, republics, and provinces based on ethnicity. Many of these regions** **would like to have independence but it is hard to break away from the federation. ** **-Chechnya– Muslim region in the Caucasus that has been fighting for freedom for years and often has** **violent relations with Russia. ** **-At least 1/3 of citizens have fled from Chechnya due to the extreme violence with Russia and the bombing raids.**
 * Cleavages **
 * -Chechnya is filled with oil reserves so Russia does not want to let them gain independence. **

**__-Religion__- most people are Russian Orthodox – but many are non-religious** **-Rise of Muslim faith in Moscow, The Caucasus, and Bashkortostan, and Tatarstan - more than 20 million Muslims in the country**
 * -There is not a strong connection between religion and political party in Russia, but religion does create some conflicts. **

**-__Social Class__ - less split in social class due to Soviet Regime but now formation of rich oligarchs** ** -Many entrepreneurs have recently became very rich from various business opportunities. ** ** -Putin attacked many of these oligarchs and had them exiled or arrested **

**__-Regional__-73% of Russians now living in cities** **-There is an economic split between people living in cities and in rural areas but for the most part everyone is equally effected by Russia's poor economy.**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**Strong ties to the Soviet Regime can still be seen in Russia with the large amount of non-religious individuals and with the relatively equal economic class. The power of Russia's past political history still effects its policies today and contributes to why Russia cannot become a real democracy.**

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 140%;"> **Russian Media** <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-ranked 142 out of 179 for the index of freedom of press by Reporters Without Borders** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-newspapers and TV stations are now privately owned but the state controls them** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-Kremlin took over only independent TV network, NTV, so NTV took over TV-6 but the state shut it down** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-There are suspicions about the death of Anna Politkovskya – outspoken critic of gov. policies in Chechnya. She was allegedly poisoned.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">** -Suspicious deaths or disappearances of reporters or journalists are common because the government does not want anything they have not approved being released to media. ** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-May 2007- Russian Union of Journalists evicted from Moscow to make space for Russian Today TV channel** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-Putin wanted to expand the state-owned English Language Channel to promote a positive image of Russia abroad**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;"> -The Novaya Gazeta newspaper openly criticized government, so 5 employees have been violently and suspiciously killed **

media type="custom" key="12682304"**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;"> This is a really weird advertisement Putin created to get people to vote for him. The voter turnout was over 146% however with very corrupt methods being used by Putin. ** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**"Today we have witnessed the dirtiest, foulest elections of the last 20 years," one opposition leader, said Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy premier. "We can't even call them elections – it's the theft of votes from the Russian people."** **<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: medium; line-height: 20px;">Putin has control over the media just like he has control over the elections, which really shows the corruption of Russia. **

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-during Soviet rule voter turnout close to 100% - forced to vote** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-65% voted in 2004 election and 70% in 2008 election** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-participation in other political activities is relatively low** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-underdeveloped civil society- private organizations and associations outside of politics** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-most Russians do not attend church regularly, belong to sports or recreational clubs, literary or cultural groups, charitable organizations, or labor unions** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-only 1% report belonging to a political party** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-most however read newspapers, watch news, and discuss politics with family and friends** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-since 1980’s people have been able to voice opinions more, but government still has strict control on certain groups activities – especially the ones openly critical of the government**
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">Political Participation and Civil Society **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">-violence toward people who criticize the government is common because of corruption of government and is often not heard because of the censorship of the media **

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**General Beliefs and Attitudes of Russian People** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Mistrust of government** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Statism - people still want the state to have an active role in their lives** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Economic beliefs - there is a big division over what kind of market reform should take place** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Westernization - also a divide over whether nationalism or westernization will be better for Russia**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**The Communist Regime once again shows its influence on the generation of today. People have a mistrust of the government because nothing has really changed for Russia, but they still want the state to do many things for them. Because they were so used to having everything state controlled, it is hard for the people to let go of these previous ideas. Most citizens highly support democratization but it is ironic because there is still a wide amount of support for Putin. Citizens are used to having strong leaders, like during the Soviet Regime, so they support Putin even though he has not created great change. In general Russians are stuck in a period where they want to move forward but do not know if they can really let go of the previous communist ideals.**

[]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 110%;"> This video shows the corruption of the Duma in Russia as the members voted multiple times by using members votes that were not present. Once again this shows why Russian people mistrust the government and the control that the government has over most aspects of Russian life. **

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 140%;"> **Social Movements** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;"> **–Mainly youth movements** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-Nashi – an effort to build a following of loyal, patriotic young peopl** **<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">e and to defuse any youthful resistance ** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-They also organize mass marches to support Putin.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**-The only major movements are ones approved by the government and are created to help promote the government's ideals.**

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 140%;">**Citizenship and Representation** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**Citizenship can be acquired by birth, naturalization, or following parents’ citizenships. Naturalization laws are not very strict except the fact that the person must speak Russian to be considered a citizen.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**All ethnicities and religions are not equally represented in the Russian government.**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**By: Shea Chuey**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**Sources:**

[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] Russia Packet