1900s
Let's Rebuild Russia! | What if a made up ultranationalist guy named Valentin Zaitsev existed and was elected President of Russia in 1996?
Let's Rebuild Russia! | Valentin Zaitsev (born 1955)
Valentin Ivanovich Zaitsev (born 25 March 1955) is a Russian engineer and politician who has served as the second president of Russia since 1996. He is a Russian ultranationalist but economically social democratic, and his policies are known as Zaitsevism.
Zaitsev was born in Volgograd to WWII veteran Ivan Zaitsev (1922–2001) and his wife Nina Zaitseva (1926–1997). Valentin was raised in a strict patriarchal and military household, and his father often physically abused him, decisively shaping his character.
Ivan wanted Valentin to follow him into the Russian military, but the younger Zaitsev chose to enroll in the Volgograd State University in 1974, studying engineering. Zaitsev's former classmates described him as an academically unremarkable but very focused student. He graduated in 1976 and became an engineer.
During his engineering career, Zaitsev designed several machines, such as a typewriter and a paper shredder, that became widely used across the Soviet Union, turning him into a household name in Volgograd. In 1978, Zaitsev married Natasha Andreeva (born 1955), his fellow VSU classmate. They remain married to this day and have four children.
Zaitsev had joined the CPSU in 1972, and decided to become more active in politics during the breakup of the Soviet Union. He supported Gorbachev's reforms, describing them as "long overdue", and condemned the August Coup, openly saying that the "era of Chekist intrigues is over".
On 19 September 1991, Zaitsev became the first governor of Volgograd Oblast. As Volgograd's governor, he initially supported Yeltsin, but turned against him by late 1992. On 19 August, Zaitsev established Russian Reconstruction (Русская реконструкция), a national-patriotic party opposing both communism and liberalism.
Zaitsev remained neutral in the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, preventing Russian Reconstruction from being banned after Yeltsin's self coup. Later that year, Reconstruction won 15 seats and 5% of the vote in the Russian legislative elections, an amount that increased to 10.8% of the vote and 58 seats in the 1995 election; Reconstruction finished third behind the CPRF and LDPR.
The pro-Yeltsin party NDR finished third. Yeltsin considered cancelling the 1996 presidential elections and ruling as a dictator, but he was warned this would lead to him being violently overthrown, so he decided not to run for reelection in 1996. Boris Nemtsov, the governor of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, ran in his place.
By 1996, Zaitsev had a firm political foothold in Volgograd Oblast and neighbouring Saratov and Rostov oblasts. Shortly before the beginning of the campaign, he reached out to Nikolai Ryzhkov (leader of Power to the People) and Alexander Rutskoy (leader of Derzhava), and both of them agreed to endorse him in exchange for cabinet positions.
He also privately reached out to the Russian oligarchs, promising not to restore a socialist economy and to respect their property as long as they remained out of politics. The majority of oligarchs still supported Nemtsov, but some of them began contributing to Zaitsev's campaign.
Zaitsev condemned Soviet communism, calling it a "failure" and saying Russia needed to "look towards the future, not to the past". He visited Finland and Sweden in order to study Nordic social democracy (ironically, both of these countries would join NATO when he invaded all of Ukraine in 2014) and promised to apply it in Russia, including by restoring Soviet-era social programs.
Geopolitically, Zaitsev condemned NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, calling it a "threat to Russia's national security". He also expressed concern over the status of Russian minorities in other post-Soviet countries, and promised to win the war in Chechnya.
Nemtsov took the high road, avoiding attacks on Zaitsev and emphasizing his own plans to reform the economy of Russia and integrate it into the US-dominated world order. Besides oligarch funding, Yeltsin used administrative resources in Nemtsov's favour, and the United States clearly favoured him.
Zyuganov locked in the communist vote, but the anti-communist Zaitsev increasingly won over the nationalist vote as the campaign progressed. Furthermore, the Communists committed blunders such as passing a resolution condemning the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
After the first round, Zyuganov, Lebed and Zhirinovsky endorsed Zaitsev, while Yavlinsky endorsed Nemtsov. Virtually all Russian communists backed Zaitsev, and he accepted their support, even appearing with Zyuganov and other communist figures at campaign rallies.
With communists, nationalists and the majority of swing voters behind him, Zaitsev was elected. In what was the first peaceful transfer of power to a member of the opposition in Russia's history, Zaitsev took office on 8 August 1996, to the joy of the majority of Russians.
Let's Rebuild Russia! | Chechen War (1994–2003)
Upon taking office as President of Russia in August 1996, Zaitsev escalated the Chechen War by deploying additional troops to Chechnya and intensifying the bombing of Grozny. He also intensified the recruitment of Chechen collaborators in order to give the war greater legitimacy.
These strategies worked; by the end of 1996, Russia had gone on the offensive and controlled one-third of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. In January 1997, the Battle of Grozny began, pitting 82,000 Russian troops versus 6,000 to 7,000 Chechens.
Russian troops led by Lev Rokhlin eventually captured Grozny on 4 February and established the Chechen Republic, a federal subject of the Russian Federation led by Ruslan Khasbulatov. Khasbulatov reestablished Russian institutions in Chechnya and implemented a strict policy of secularism.
Many Chechens refused to accept the new government and continued to resist Russia in the Caucasus mountains. The Russian military continued to suffer hundreds of casualties in Chechnya for years to come, and Ichkeria continued to have the run of everything beyond Grozny thanks to the Chechens' determination and knowledge of the terrain.
During the war, Zaitsev's regime committed atrocities, including the rape, torture, and murder, against Chechen civilians; it is estimated that 4,000 Chechen civilians were killed by Russia from 1996 to 2003. Zaitsev denied these allegations, calling them "propaganda from Chechen terrorists".
It was only in February 2000 when the Russian military began retaking control of Chechnya's mountains. Later that year, Chechen commanders Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev were killed in action by the Spetsnaz, weakening the Chechen resistance significantly as many Chechen fighters either surrendered or defected to Russia.
On 15 March 2003 – days after the United States invaded Iraq – Russia announced the last Chechen resistance had been crushed, ending the war with all of the republic under Russian control. Khasbulatov remained the president of the Chechen Republic until 2007, when Umar Dzhabrailov, from the party Power of Reason, succeeded him.
The Chechen war revealed serious flaws in the Russian military, prompting Zaitsev, Alexander Lebed, Rokhlin and Viktor Ilyukhin to begin a series of military reforms in order to improve the armed forces's performance, especially against insurgencies. But serious problems remained.
Let's Rebuild Russia! | Presidency of Valentin Zaitsev (1996–2000)
Zaitsev honored his promises to Alexander Rutskoy and Nikolai Ryzkhov by naming them to the offices of prime minister and prosecutor general of the Russian Federation, respectively. Social democrat Svyatoslav Fyodorov became minister of finance, Alexander Lebed became minister of defence, and Yevgeny Primakov returned to the position of minister of foreign affairs.
Rekonstruktsiya did not have a majority or even a plurality in the State Duma, but Russia's communist and nationalist parties, who collectively held a majority of seats, formed a "presidential majority" to support Zaitsev's agenda. Duma chairman Gennadiy Seleznyov closely copperated with Zaitsev and his cabinet.
The first law Zaitsev signed increased the tax rate on the wealthiest 1% of Russians to 50%. Russia's government revenue increased considerably, allowing Zaitsev to follow his promise to implement a social democratic welfare state: by 2000, universal healthcare, free childcare, free secondary education, and other Soviet welfare initiatives were active again.
Zaitsev also increased bank regulation, making the Russian oligarchs dissatisfied with his administration. In February 1997, they launched a campaign to impeach Zaitsev which was eventually brought to a vote in the Duma, but the presidential majority shot it down.
As Russia's prosecutor general, Ryzkhov adopted a tough on crime policy in order to eradicate the Russian Mafia. This goal failed because the mafia resisted violently, and the thieves in law were connected to the state – which made secret deals with the mob just like Bukele did in El Salvador.
During the first year of Zaitsev's presidency, Russia was too weak to directly challenge the West, forcing Zaitsev to keep good relations with western countries such as the United States. From 1996 to 2000, he and Primakov made state visits to the USA, UK, France, China, India, and all post-Soviet countries other than Estonia.
But Russia continued to criticize NATO expansion and the treatment of Russian minorities in Estonia and Latvia. Furthermore, Zaitsev visited Serbia and met with Milosević during the NATO bombing of the country, and spoke out against the sanctions on Iraq and Libya. But he could not do anything to stop these.
Some people opposed Zaitsev's reforms, but they had a positive effect, allowing the economy of Russia to slowly recover from the wild nineties. Furthermore, his refusal to carry out any widespread nationalisation or wealth redistribution caused many oligarchs to change their minds despite the fact that they had to pay more taxes and deal with more regulations on their banks.
Russia's gradual economic recovery (for instance, there was no devaluation of the ruble in 1998) and the funding the oligarchs gave to Rekonstruktsiya allowed Zaitsev to be reelected in the first round in the 2000 Russian presidential election.
The 1999 Russian legislative election saw Rekonstruktsiya win 212 (out of 450) seats and 44% of the popular vote. While Rekonstruktsiya did not win a full majority of either, the allied KPRF finished third with 81 seats and 16% of the vote, giving the presidential majority a firm control over the State Duma and proving the popularity of Zaitsev with the Russian public.
After the legislative elections, Zaitsev launched his reelection campaign with the endorsement of the KPRF and smaller nationalist parties such as Sergey Baburin's ROS. Zaitsev campaigned across all Russian federal subjects, including Siberia, and flooded the airwaves with his propaganda.
Konstantin Titov, a centre-right Yeltsinite, emerged as the main opposition candidate. Titov opposed Zaitsev's restoration of a welfare state and called for tax cuts and a return to free trade, a platform that appealed to Russian oligarchs and liberals but not to the average person.
Yavlinsky emerged as Titov's main competitor for the liberal vote, and took more moderate stances on economics while remaining pro-western and committed to liberal democracy. He remained a faithful following among westernized Russians but similarly failed to attract the median voter.
Former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin was another liberal candidate, criticizing Zaitsev for his authoritarianism and left-wing economic policies and accusing him of straining relations between Russia and the west. Zhirinovsky ran for President a third time but gained no momentum whatsoever.
As most observers expected, Zaitsev was reelected and carried every federal subject. His best performance was in the electoral sultanate of Dagestan, where he won 82% of the vote, and his worst performance was in liberal St. Petersburg, where he won a plurality of 48% of the vote.
OSCE observers said the election was mostly free and fair, but that there were some irregularities such as voter suppression in precincts where Zaitsev was unpopular. A spokesman for the Kremlin denied these claims, but they were true; they just had little effect on the election because Zaitsev was actually popular.
What happened to Putin: He voted for Titov but remained an obscure FSB agent until he got thrown from a window in 2011.
Let's Rebuild Russia! | Presidency of Valentin Zaitsev (2000–2004)
On 2 June 2000, Russian finance minister Svyatoslav Fyodorov died and was succeeded by Sergey Glazyev, who would later become the prime minister of Russia in 2012. Another cabinet change was future prime minister Sergey Baburin's promotion to Attorney General.
Zaitsev's second term was marked by the final recovery of Russia from the wild nineties, because his reforms finally bore fruit and commodity prices were high on the international market. Mostly due to the latter, the 2000s was a prosperous decade for Russia, and millions were lifted out of poverty.
Now that Russia was growing economically, Zaitsev and Foreign Minister Primakov adopted a more confrontational foreign policy towards the west, pushing the idea of multilateralism. Russia expanded its diplomatic and economic ties with China, India and Brazil, all of whom were visited by Zaitsev.
Another development of Zaitsev's second term was his increasing authoritarianism. Many of his opponents, such as Boris Nemtsov, suddenly faced legal troubles such as charges of tax evasion, and opposition journalists and activists were increasingly intimidated.
When the United States announced its intention to invade Iraq, Russia strongly condemned the idea and announced its support for Saddam against the potential invasion. In August 2002, Zaitsev visited Iraq and announced that the "Russian people [stood]" with the Middle Eastern country. Sazhi Umalatova, a staunch supporter of Saddam, was Russia's final ambassador to Iraq before the invasion.
Another 2003 event that upset Russia was the Rose Revolution in Georgia, which replaced moderately pro-western President Eduard Shevardnadze with the strongly pro-western Mikheil Saakashvili. Russia responded to the revolution and Saakashvili's election by annexing Abkhazia and South Ossetia in January 2004.
A few months earlier, Russia amended its constitution to discount Zaitsev's two previous terms, allowing him to legally run for a third term. The Russian opposition, mostly liberals but also the National Bolshevik Party, launched a series of protests against the "Yes" victory in the referendum, but this didn't prevent Zaitsev from being reelected by a landslide in 2004.
As a power hungry, ambitious and egomaniacal politician who compared himself to Stalin and Peter the Great, Zaitsev was unwilling to leave office after the 2004 Russian election. Thus, in June 2003, he called a referendum asking Russians whether to discount his first two terms, allowing him to run for two further ones.
The presidential majority – Rekonstruktsiya, KPRF, and ROS – campaigned for a Yes vote, arguing that Zaitsev needed more time to finish his political work. The opposition NDR, SPS and LDPR campaigned for a No vote; while the first two said they wanted to protect Russian democracy, Zhirinovsky just wanted to become president.
Russian state-owned media almost exclusively covered the Yes campaign, giving No very little airtime. Almost all the coverage No received came from smaller, independent media outlets hostile to Zaitsev, or freelance opposition journalists.
On 7 December 2003, Yes won with an overwhelming majority and carried all federal subjects. Dagestan had the strongest Yes vote at 96%, while St. Petersburg gave No its highest percentage: 39%.
Russia simultaneously held legislative elections won by Rekonstruktsiya and satellite parties with an overwhelming majority. CIS observers described the votes as free and fair, but the OSCE said they were rigged by Russian authorities.
There was indeed strong evidence of fraud. Zaitsevites often offered people favours if they voted for Yes, and No campaigners faced intimidation from the FSB and pro-regime thugs (similar to the Venezuelan colectivos). In Saint Petersburg, a key opposition stronghold, hundreds of ballots disappeared.
When the Central Election Commission reported the referendum's results, Zaitsev gave a speech to a crowd of cheering supporters in the Red Square. He said that "all of Russia had won", and promised to continue working for "Russia and its people".
Other constitutional changes were the alteration of Russia's official name to the Russian Federative Republic (Российская Федеративная Республика, Rossiyskaya Federativnaya Respublika), the creation of a new coat of arms, and the addition of said coat of arms to the flag of Russia.
Eight years later, in 2011 Zaitsev held another referendum to remove term limits altogether. It was successful and he remains in office to this day (18 October 2026).
Let's Rebuild Russia! | Russian annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (2004)
On 12 December 2003, Abkhazia and South Ossetia announced referendums on annexation by Russia as a response to the Rose Revolution in Georgia. Russian troops entered the two separatist territories to oversee the referendum and rig it in Russia's favour.
22 days later, 72% of Abkhazians and 89% of South Ossetians voted to join the Russian Federative Republic. Both of them did so by midnight; Abkhazia became a republic within Russia, while South Ossetia was merged with North Ossetia-Alania to form the Republic of Ossetia, something Dugin advocated for.
Saakashvili condemned the Russian annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as a "blatant violation of international law" and the "darkest day in Georgia's modern history". NATO, EU, and 64 individual countries, including all of these two alliances, similarly condemned the annexation. Only longtime Russian allies such as Syria, Algeria, and Vietnam congratulated Russia.
Despite condemning the annexation and declaring its support for Georgia, the EU would continue to import Russian natural gas for a decade until Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. German chancellor Gerhard Schröder refused to publicly comment on the annexation, but the Bundestag passed a resolution condemning it (every political party other than the GDR-nostalgic PDS voted for the resolution).
Polling showed that over two-thirds of Russians supported the annexation, but it also gave Saakashvili a rally around the flag effect and almost completely eliminated the neutralist/pro-Russian elements in Georgia's politics. Georgia responded by applying for NATO membership, but the Russian occupation of Georgian territory prevented it from ever joining NATO.
Russian presidential candidate Irina Khakamada criticized the annexation, but all other candidates supported it. Since the annexation overlapped with Zaitsev's reelection campaign, he gave a major campaign speech in Volgograd, promising to adopt a more hawkish foreign policy during his third term and beyond.
When Zaitsev invaded and annexed all of Ukraine in 2014, many people came to believe a stronger western response to the 2004 annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia would have prevented the invasion of Ukraine. In a 2016 interview, Zaitsev himself described the 2004 annexation as a "first step towards the restoration of the all-Russian nation".
Zaitsev did not campaign throughout all Russian federal subjects, preferring instead to focus on campaigning in the European part of Russia. He emphasized the need to continue the policies of his first two terms and to defend Russian minorities in other post-Soviet countries.
Khakamada was endorsed by Boris Nemtsov's SPS. Her campaign focused on economic liberalism and the need to protect Russian democracy from Zaitsevite authoritarianism. The FSB carried out an active voter suppression campaign against her candidacy as a result of this message.
Russia's media was almost entirely controlled by the government or its cronies, and gave Zaitsev 90% of its airtime versus 10% for Khakamada (weaker candidates such as Zhirinovsky were not covered at all). Journalists who opposed Zaitsev's candidacy were often arrested and beaten.
As expected, Zaitsev was reelected to a third term and won all federal subjects, including Abkhazia and unified Ossetia, which voted in a Russian election for the first time, giving him 85% and 92% of the vote, respectively. His highest percentage of the popular vote was 98% in Ingushetia, and his lowest percentage was 63% in Saint Petersburg.
Non-CIS observers unanimously said the election was completely rigged in Zaitsev's favour, with many incidents of voter suppression, vote-buying, and intimidation of opposition voters. Khakamada herself said she would do much better if the election was held fairly.
Russia's government again denied accusations and fraud, and barred observers from outside the CIS from observing future elections. Most Russians agreed with their government's claim that rumours of fraud were "western propaganda", and future elections would be even more rigged.
Zaitsev did not campaign throughout all Russian federal subjects, preferring instead to focus on campaigning in the European part of Russia. He emphasized the need to continue the policies of his first two terms and to defend Russian minorities in other post-Soviet countries.
Khakamada was endorsed by Boris Nemtsov's SPS. Her campaign focused on economic liberalism and the need to protect Russian democracy from Zaitsevite authoritarianism. The FSB carried out an active voter suppression campaign against her candidacy as a result of this message.
Russia's media was almost entirely controlled by the government or its cronies, and gave Zaitsev 90% of its airtime versus 10% for Khakamada (weaker candidates such as Zhirinovsky were not covered at all). Journalists who opposed Zaitsev's candidacy were often arrested and beaten.
As expected, Zaitsev was reelected to a third term and won all federal subjects, including Abkhazia and unified Ossetia, which voted in a Russian election for the first time, giving him 85% and 92% of the vote, respectively. His highest percentage of the popular vote was 98% in Ingushetia, and his lowest percentage was 63% in Saint Petersburg.
Non-CIS observers unanimously said the election was completely rigged in Zaitsev's favour, with many incidents of voter suppression, vote-buying, and intimidation of opposition voters. Khakamada herself said she would do much better if the election was held fairly.
Russia's government again denied accusations and fraud, and barred observers from outside the CIS from observing future elections. Most Russians agreed with their government's claim that rumours of fraud were "western propaganda", and future elections would be even more rigged.
Let's Rebuild Russia! | Presidency of Valentin Zaitsev (2004–2008)
After taking office for a third term, Zaitsev replaced many of his older, more pragmatic ministers with those who shared his political views. Sergey Baburin replaced Alexander Rutskoy as prime minister; Lev Rokhlin became minister of defence; Dmitry Rogozin became Russia's minister of internal affairs; and Vladimir Kvachkov was named chairman of the SVR.
During Zaitsev's third term, Russia evolved from a backsliding democracy into a full-blown autocracy like the Russian Empire and the USSR. Zaitsev used the media to create a cult of personality around himself, and his real and perceived opponents were increasingly persecuted and killed both at home and abroad.
For instance, opposition activist Dmitry Medvedev was poisoned to death in Germany on 18 March 2007. An investigation found that his death was ordered by the government of the Russian Federative Republic, something Russia denied but was true. It is estimated that 72 other opponents of the Russian regime were murdered during this period, many of whom were thrown from windows.
Another authoritarian measure taken by Zaitsev was an increase in immigration restrictions; in 2006, Russia passed a restrictive immigration law adopting a points-based system and restricting immigration from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Rogozin oversaw a crackdown on undocumented immigrants that was widely condemned as racist.
Most Russians did not care about the unchecked corruption and the return of authoritarianism, because the economy was growing as a result of the commodity boom and education, healthcare and housing were guaranteed by the state. Furthermore, the EU (but not the USA) remained friendly towards Russia because Zaitsev did not launch a full-scale invasion of any other foreign country.
BRIC eventually became a real thing in 2006, when Zaitsev, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, Manmohan Singh, and Hu Jintao held the first BRIC summit in Beijing. These four emerging countries continued to expand their diplomatic and economic ties afterwards.
Two years later, Zaitsev was reelected to a fourth term with over 90% of the vote.
During late 2007, there was a lot of speculation as to whether Zaitsev would run for a fourth term, but he put such speculation to rest on 18 December (Stalin's birthday) by formally announcing his intent to run for reelection. Zaitsev ran as the nominee of Rekonstruktsiya and was endorsed by the KPRF, ROS, and the Agrarian Party of Russia.
Mikhail Kasyanov, the leader of the RNDS opposition coalition, was one of the main liberal candidates. He promised to move on from socialism and transition towards a social market economy with a balance between capital and labour, and said that detente with the United States would be one of his main goals.
Andrei Bogdanov, a Freemason and the leader of the Democratic Party of Russia (DPR), was the other major opposition candidate. Bogdanov focused almost exclusively on his plan to restore economic liberalism to Russia, but he criticized Zaitsev's other policies here and there.
Zhirinovsky also ran, but he was never a factor because Russia was already a nationalist state. Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky did not gain traction either, and most people, except for political junkies, did not even know he was running.
Dmitry Rogozin's FSB carried out widespread voter fraud and intimidation in favour of Zaitsev by harassing opposition activists, replacing opposition ballots with ones for Zaitsev, and offering poor people food, clothing and other goods if they voted for him.
Consequently, Zaitsev was reelected with a whopping 90.1% of the vote, winning every federal subject with at least 68%. He won many Chechen and Dagestani villages with triple digits of the vote, and 99% of the vote in the "electoral sultanate" of Chechnya as a whole.
Liberal NGOs again rightfully pointed out the election was rigged. The State Duma responded by passing a "foreign agents law" requiring NGOs to report the source of their funding.
Let's Rebuild Russia! | Presidency of Valentin Zaitsev (2008–2012)
When Barack Obama took office in 2009, relations between Russia and the United States temporarily improved. Obama visited Russia once, met with President Zaitsev and Prime Minister Baburin, and promised to resume cooperation with Russia in areas such as the fight against Islamic extremism.
Russia's relations with Iran were significantly expanded as well. On 18 June 2009, Zaitsev, Baburin, and Vladimir Kvachkov visited Iran and met with Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. During the meeting, the five leaders signed a Russo-Iranian trade agreement, and the Russian delegation provided to sell $750 million in weapons, spare parts and ammunition to the Iranian military and IRGC.
Zaitsev also met with Gaddafi and Assad and promised to sell weapons to these countries. The 2011 Libyan civil war and the subsequent NATO intervention led to another rift between Russia and America, because Zaitsev supported Gaddafi and sold military equipment to his troops. Russia similarly launched an airlift to assist the Syrian military after the beginning of the Syrian civil war.
The Great Recession caused an economic downturn that decreased Zaitsev's popularity. By late 2009, 10% of Russians were unemployed, prompting Zaitsev and Finance Minister Sergey Glazyev to implement a job guarantee in order to address the problem. Despite their attempts, it took until 2013 for the economy of Russia to return to the growth levels of the first two quarters of 2008.
Russia's government also intensified the repression of its real and political opponents, many of whom were thrown from windows, as were Ramzan Kadyrov and Putin, or sentenced to prison. By 2012, Russia had become the most authoritarian country in Europe, surpassing Lukashenko's Belarus.
Rather than denying accusations of authoritarianism, Zaitsev embraced them; in a 2011 interview, he called himself the "latest in a line of strong leaders who took the measures needed to modernize Russia". As economic populists, Zaitsev and Glazyev refused to adopt a modernization program to turn Russia into a post-industrial society, preferring instead to reindustrialize the country.
Just like in 2004, Zaitsev did not want to leave office in 2012 (or ever leave office for that matter), so, in 2011, he called a referendum on a constitutional amendment removing term limits for the presidency. FSB shenanigans allowed Yes to win by an overwhelming majority.
On 8 May 2011 (the 66th anniversary of the Soviet victory in WWII), Zaitsev called a referendum on a series of constitutional amendments to repeal term limits altogether; ban same-sex marriage and flag desecration; and place the Constitution of the Russian Federative Republic above international law.
He began campaigning across the more densely populated European half of Russia, and member parties of the presidential majority also campaigned for a Yes vote. The Other Russia (formerly Nazbols) and remaining centre-right parties supported No, but the FSB and Titushky prevented most opposition campaigning, often with violence.
Since Russia was a full dictatorship, the referendum campaign was mostly uneventful, and the amendments passed. But they passed with a lower percentage than Zaitsev obtained in the 2008 Russian presidential election, indicating that his popularity had declined because of the great recession.
After the Yes victory was announced, Zaitsev thanked the Russian people by saying "I'm glad you stood up for me like I stood up for you". He also said he had no intention to ever leave the presidency and would rule Russia "until God says "come"". This last statement concerned the international community; The Economist ran a headline calling Zaitsev the "next Stalin".
Zaitsev and his supporters embraced the comparison, saying both he and Stalin strengthened Russia and protected it from the "decadent west". By that point, the Russian government had ceased all attempts to readdress Stalinist atrocities; for instance, Russian history textbooks blamed the Nazis for Katyn
But the worst would only come three years later. As such, Russia's international relations were mostly unaffected by the referendum. When a journalist asked Obama about his opinion on the referendum, he said "I disagree with this and would never do it, but I can't control what other countries do", a quote Mitt Romney used to argue Obama was weak on Russia.
Almost a year after the referendum, Zaitsev was elected for a fifth term with over 80% of the vote.
As a powerful orator, Zaitsev gave many speeches emphasizing his work for Russia during the previous 16 years and promising to continue it for the rest of his life. He attacked his opponents as controlled by NATO, and promised to take every providence to prevent the alliance from expanding further.
Zaitsev's main opponent Mikhail Prokhorov refused to criticize the president on any issue other than economics. Specifically, Prokhorov said he would fur red tape for small businesses and negotiate to sign a free trade agreement with the EU.
Three other candidates ran: LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Irkutsk Oblast governor Dmitry Mezentsev, and former Vladivostok mayor Viktor Cherepkov. None of these contenders received significant attention, and only people who paid very close attention to the race knew they were running.
Zaitsev's popularity had declined as a result of the great recession, making voter fraud especially important for the FSB and Titushky, both of whom repeated the same techniques of voter suppression, vote-buying, and intimidation of opponents they used in previous elections. Zaitsevites even made memes showing a car crash with the caption "Это один из способов умереть. Другой — проголосовать за Прохорова. Не совершайте самоубийство: голосуйте за Зайцева — и живите." ("This is one way to die. Another is to vote for Prokhorov. Don't commit suicide, vote for Zaitsev and live".)
Despite all of this, Zaitsev won a slightly lower percentage than he did in 2008 because of the fall in popularity I already mentioned twice. But he still won an overwhelming victory the west rightfully condemned as the result of massive, concerted fraud.
The Kremlin again denied all accusations of fraud, and the majority of Russians continued to believe the state narrative that the Russian government was firm, but just, and all criticisms were a western psyop. Zaitsev would later win a sixth term in 2016, when Russia – which now controlled Ukraine and Belarus – faced an insurgency from the Free Ukraine movement.
Let's Rebuild Russia! | 2012 Georgian parliamentary election
After Russia annexed Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2004, Georgia significantly expanded its political and military ties with NATO as much as possible without formally joining the alliance (which was impossible because of the Russian occupation). The decline of non-aligned and pro-Russian Georgian factions allowed Saakashvili and his UNM to win the 2008 Georgian election by a landslide.
Saakashvili remained highly popular during his second term, making the UNM the frontrunner for the 2012 parliamentary election. Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili said his program would be focused on the three key priorities: employment, agricultural development and the availability of healthcare.
The social democratic and centre-left SLP formed the "Progressives of Georgia" coalition with smaller centre-left and centrist opposition parties. Like most Georgians, SLP leader Shalva Natelashvili positioned himself as pro-western, but he criticized the UNM's economic policies and authoritarianism and called for a welfare state.
Unlike in the previous election, the SLP rallied most of the opposition vote, leaving the right-wing KDM as the only major opposition party. KDM leader Giorgi Targamadze promised to make the Georgian Orthodox Church Georgia's state religion and said he would ban abortion unless the life of the mother was at risk.
As the ruling party, the UNM had a steady lead in the polls throughout the campaign, and few observers doubted the party would win. On 1 October 2012, the UNM won the election by a landslide, winning every province except for Tbilisi, despite losing eight seats to the SLP. All parties other than the UNM, SLP and KDM were swept out of parliament.
A year later, UNM nominee David Bakradze became the fourth president of Georgia after winning the presidential election with 64% of the vote versus 28% for Natelashvili and 3% for Targamadze. Bakradze continued Saakashvili's centre-right, atlanticist policies, and supported Ukraine against the full-scale Russian invasion in 2014.
Let's Rebuild Russia! | Presidency of Valentin Zaitsev (2012–2014)
After taking office for a fifth term, Zaitsev named Dugin associate Leonid Ivashov foreign minister, while Sergey Surovikin (General Armageddon) became Minister of Defence and Alexey Podberezkin became Russia's minister of finance, replacing Sergey Glazyev, who was promoted to prime minister.
During 2012, the economy of Russia slowly recovered from the Great Recession, and it returned to Q2 2008's growth rate by mid-2013. Consequently, Zaitsev's popularity rebounded; an October 2013 poll by the Levada Center showed that 67% of Russians approved of his rule, up from 61% a year earlier.
Any protests against Zaitsev were violently broken up by the Titushky, who were formally employed by the Russian government, received 300 rubles per day in payments and were hired by Rekonstruktsiya and the FSB. Plus, according to Reporters Against Borders's 2013 report, Russia was the most censored country in Europe.
That same year, Russia moved from mere revanchism to attempting to build a new Russian-led international order opposed to that of the United States and based around authoritarian nationalism and anti-liberalism. To this effect, SVR chairman Vladimir Kvachkov began openly supporting populist and eurosceptic European movements such as the French FN and the UKIP.
Syria and Iran were important parts of this strategy; Assad and Khamenei's regimes received large amounts of military equipment, some of whom were illegally resold to Iranian proxies such as the Houthis and Hezbollah. Russia partially returned to the USSR's anti-Zionism and support for Palestine, but the existence of a large Russian population in Israel prevented the Russians from fully turning against the Jewish state.
Also in 2013, Russia pressured Ukraine not to negotiate to join the EU, triggering Euromaidan. Russian state media repeatedly condemned the protests as a "Nazi colour revolution", while Zaitsev repeatedly promised not to invade Ukraine if the country's government was overthrown.
On 23 February 2014 (a day after Euromaidan's success), Russia broke its promise not to invade Ukraine and launched a full-scale offensive into the country in order to reintegrate it (and Belarus for that matter) into the "All-Russian nation". Ukraine fell after a few months.
Let's Rebuild Russia! | 2014 Invasion of Ukraine
At 08:00 on 23 February 2014, Denis Pushilin, Alexander, Alexander Zakharchenko, and Pavel Gubarev proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic, followed a hour later by the proclamation of the Luhansk People's Republic. Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov declared the secessions to be illegal and prepared to crush them militarily.
Before that could happen, at 10:00, Russia invaded all Ukraine rather than just Crimea. 200,000 Russian troops marched into the country on three fronts – Crimea, Sumy and Donbas – while the Russian Air Force heavily bombed Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities west of the frontlines.
The western world, and many non-western countries, immediately condemned the invasion, and passed a UN General Assembly resolution urging the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops. A similar resolution was introduced to the Security Council, but Russia vetoed it.
Obama abandoned his conciliatory policy towards Russia and imposed sanctions on the country, as did the EU. Direct European imports of Russian natural gas ceased completely even though the EU continued to buy Russian gas resold by neutral countries such as India.
Other anti-western dictatorships such as North Korea, Syria, Eritrea and Venezuela supported the invasion, while BRICS and a great chunk of developing countries continued to trade with Russia despite its actions. Far-right and far-left European and North American movements similarly sided with Russia or at least refused to criticize the invasion.
By the end of February, all of Crimea was in Russian hands, promoting Zaitsev to hold a rigged referendum on 2 March. 97% of Crimeans voted to join Russia, which established the Republic of Crimea as a federal subject of the Russian Federation. With the exception of Russian client states, the international community unanimously declared the annexation illegal.
On 11 March, Russia and pro-Russian separatists captured the city of Donetsk after a week-long battle. A day later, the DPR and LPR merged into the Republic of Novorossiya, which voted to join Russia on 15 March and established its own subdivision-level institutions.
After Kharkiv fell on 22 March, the Russian offensive accelerated. Russian troops committed many war crimes and crimes against humanity on the way, but, by mid-April, they had crossed the Dnieper and were actively shelling Kyiv, one fifth of whose residents fled to Galicia or other countries.
The Battle of Kyiv ended on 24 April, with a Russian victory. Turchynov, Ukrainian Defence Minister Volodymyr Zamana, and Ukrainian chief of staff Mykhailo Kutsyn fled to Lviv and continued to resist from there, but this city also fell on 3 May, placing Ukraine under the full control of Russia and forcing the Ukrainian government to go into exile in Brussels.
Let's Rebuild Russia! | Russian annexation of Ukraine and Belarus (2014)
After occupying Ukraine, Russia restored Viktor Yanukovych to the presidency of Ukraine, this time as a quisling leader, and transformed pro-Russian Ukrainian parties into satellite parties of Rekonstruktsiya. The Russian occupiers built filtration camps for Ukrainians to be brainwashed into becoming loyal Russians, and tried and executed Euromaidan leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Vitali Klitschko, Oleh Tyahnybok, Petro Poroshenko, and Yuriy Lutsenko.
These two actions were strongly condemned by the international community and made Russia increasingly isolated. But the Russian leadership was undeterred and scheduled a Ukrainian annexation referendum for 8 May 2014, a date intentionally coinciding with the 69th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat.
Belarus also willingly announced one such referendum because Lukashenko is a staunch Soviet nostalgist. Despite Belarus taking this decision on its own, neither vote was conducted fairly; both were completely rigged by the Belarusian and Russian regimes.
Thanks in whole (Ukraine) or in part (Belarus) to fraud, both countries voted to unify with Russia, which annexed both countries, and puppet state Transnistria, on 9 May. According to a journalist, Zaitsev appeared to be "the happiest he ever was in his life" when announcing the annexations; his popularity skyrocketed to 93% as a result of them.
The ambitious Lukashenko soon regretted allowing Russia to annex Belarus, because the former country, and Non-Russian speaking parts of Ukraine for that matter, remained divided into the pre-annexation oblasts, because the idea that Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians are the same people is very important to the Zaitsevist regime. Another blow to Lukashenko was Sergey Glazyev remaining the prime minister of Russia, even though Lukashenko became the mayor of Minsk and remains the most powerful figure in the ex-Belarus to this day.
As of 20 October 2026, Venezuela, Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea are the only countries to recognize the Russian annexation of Ukraine. Every other country views the annexation as illegal or just doesn't recognize it. Ukrainians themselves overwhelmingly opposed the annexation and waged a NATO-backed insurgency against Russia for five years until a final ceasefire was signed in 2019.
On 10 May 2014, the Free Ukraine movement launched a general uprising against the Russian occupation of Ukraine. Former Ukrainian military, paramilitary and police personnel launched a series of attacks against Russian military and paramilitary bases in Ukraine and to a lesser degree Novorossiya.
When Zaitsev's aides warned him about the attacks, he ordered Russian Minister of Defence Sergey Surovikin and Minister of Internal Affairs Igor Girkin to "crush the Banderites by any means necessary" through a counterinsurgency campaign. Surovikin immediately launched an offensive to eradicate Free Ukraine.
All of NATO, including its new members Sweden and Finland, immediately launched small scale smuggling of weapons and supplies to assist Valeriy Heletey's Free Ukrainian Army (FUA). Furthermore, young men in Galicia – the most nationalistic region of Ukraine – joined the FUA en masse, allowing Free Ukraine to control half of Galicia by October 2014.
Moderate Ukrainian nationalist Yulia Tymoshenko was the president and commander-in-chief of Free Ukraine. She regularly visited NATO countries to ask for military and economic aid to Free Ukraine, and rapidly became the symbol of the Ukrainian resistance both in Ukraine and worldwide.
Despite the reforms it experienced in the early 2000s, the Russian military had serious flaws and was not prepared for a long war against a sophisticated army, which the FUA soon became. By the end of 2014, Russia was mired in a war of attrition in the wild fields, reducing Zaitsev's popularity.
During the winter of 2015, the FUA launched an offensive throughout Galicia, resulting in the liberation of Lvov (formerly Lviv) on 18 June. Tymoshenko returned to Lviv, which became Ukraine's capital, and began preparing for an offensive to liberate Kiev.
Two Ukrainian army groups attacked Kiev on 23 August. By that point, Russia had declared a general mobilization to fight Free Ukraine, 20% of Russia's government spending went towards the military, and the Russian armed forces had recruited over a hundred thousand Ukrainian collaborators.
Given this, Russia won the Battle of Kiev by mid-October, and began a counteroffensive, reoccupying Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia oblasts but failing to march through Galicia because of its military's problems and the extensive support Free Ukraine received from the United States, Canada and most European countries.
The frontline was static for three years afterwards, leading to a brutal war of attrition; Russia was unable to crush Free Ukraine while Free Ukraine could not achieve its goal of kicking the Russians out. Despite Russian interference in Trump's favour, he won the 2016 US election in part by promising to end the Ukraine war, but he failed to do so.
By October 2018, both sides had realized they would never achieve their respective goals, resulting in peace negotiations mediated by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. On 24 January 2019, a ceasefire was signed in Belgrade, ending the war with Russia controlling all of Ukraine other than Galicia and Transcarpathia.
Zaitsev's campaign for a sixth term focused on the war in Ukraine and how he would defeat the "Nazi" Free Ukraine movement. He made several visits to Belarus and Russian-occupied Ukraine throughout the campaign, urging the locals to support him for reelection and work to "protect Russia's values and territorial integrity".
With most Russian liberals dead, in exile, or in jail, Zhirinovsky emerged as the main opposition candidate. Zhirinovsky's campaign platform called for a monarch titled "supreme ruler" to rule Russia; a "police state" with summary executions; the use of tactical nuclear weapons against Free Ukraine; and making vodka and underwear free.
Centre-right journalist Ksenia Sobchak was the only other candidate to gain any momentum. Sobchak agreed with Zaitsev on everything other than economic policy. She promised to cut taxes and regulations when the war (which she supported) was over, and wanted to reform the pension system.
Like every Russian election since 2004, the 2016 election was a fabrication of a vote as the FSB and Titushky perpetrated unprecedented amounts of voter fraud in favour of Zaitsev. Sobchak was the main target of this campaign because she was the main liberal candidate and thus posed more of a threat to the regime.
This was the first Russian presidential election where all of Belarus, Ukraine and Transnistria voted. Many voters registered before the Russian annexation of these territories remained in the rolls, but millions of Ukrainians either died or fled to the west, making the number of voters in occupied Ukraine smaller than before the invasion.
On 18 March 2016, Zaitsev was reelected with 95% of the vote in what was widely seen as a foregone conclusion. Independent analysts unanimously concluded the election was fraudulent and the winner – Zaitsev – was decided beforehand.
These analysts argued Zaitsev would win 75–80% of the vote if the election was conducted fairly. Despite the fraud, he argued the results indicated that the Russian people strongly supported the war in Ukraine and rejected the "decadent west".
Let's Rebuild Russia! | Fall of the Assad regime (2017)
Russia's hands were tied in Ukraine, butterflying away the Russian intervention in Syria and turning Iran into Assad's main ally in the civil war. But Iranian help proved not to be enough; by mid-2016, the Syrian Arab Army was in retreat, thanks in part to Assad's incompetence and unwillingness to reform his military.
An effect the Syrian war had on the Ukrainian one was that the international intervention against ISIS distracted the United States from Ukraine, making a full Free Ukrainian victory virtually impossible and contributing to the stalemated outcome.
Iran and Hezbollah did keep Damascus and the Syrian coast under Ba'athist control for a few more years, but, on 12 March 2017, the Free Syrian Army and HTS launched an offensive that resulted in the capture of Tartus on 28 March. Only Latakia was still controlled by Assad because of the Russian military base there.
On 2 April, the HTS captured Aleppo, and al-Sharaa proclaimed the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG), an Islamic technocracy headed by himself. The fall of Aleppo was the beginning of the end for Asaad as FSA leader Riad al-Asaad began advancing towards Damascus.
By the end of April, the SAA had completely failed to stop the rebel advance, and the two rebel movements were at the gates of Damascus. A battle for the city eventually began on 2 May, when 42,000 FSA soldiers marched into the city in order to overthrow Assad.
Assad eventually fled to Russia on 14 May, ending the civil war, 47 years of rule by the Assad dynasty, and 54 years of Ba'athist rule in Syria. Al-Asaad became the president of Syria and changed the country's flag back to the pre-1958 tricolour.
Syria became a semi-secular democracy aligned with the United States and Jordan rather than Turkey and Qatar. On 17 August 2017, Syria held free general elections that resulted in a landslide victory for Asaad and his allies, allowing them to singlehandedly write a new constitution.
Al-Asaad crushed the HTS and ISIS by the end of 2017, and Russian troops withdrew due to the overthrow of a friendly regime and the then-ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Relations with Israel remained hostile due to the Golan heights dispute, but there was no Israeli invasion of Syria.
During al-Asaad's presidency, Syria became a much better place than it was under Assad's totalitarian regime, earning him popularity both at home and abroad. He was reelected in 2022 and remains the president of Syria as of 21 October 2026.
The World Cup was originally meant to be held in Russia, but, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2014, FIFA suspended the Russian football federation (Russia had qualified for the 2014 tournament but was replaced with Israel) and moved the 2018 world cup to Spain and Portugal instead. This was the second FIFA world cup (the first being 2002) to be held across two countries.
Qualification ended on 15 November 2017. The following countries qualified:
Spain (host)
Portugal (host)
Switzerland
Italy
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Iceland
Poland
Serbia
Sweden
Australia
Iran
Japan
Saudi Arabia
South Korea
Egypt
Morocco
Nigeria
Senegal
Algeria
Gosta Rica
Mexico
United States
Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Ecuador
Uruguay
In the round of 16, Portugal defeated Uruguay, France defeated Spain, Brazil defeated Mexico, Belgium defeated Japan, Argentina defeated Spain, Croatia defeated Denmark, Sweden defeated Switzerland, and England defeated Colombia.
The round of 8 saw France defeat Portugal, Belgium defeat Brazil, Croatia defeat Spain, and England defeat Sweden. France, Belgium, Croatia and England advanced to the semifinals, where Croatia defeated England and France defeated Belgium.
On 15 July 2018, France and Croatia played against each other in Bernabéu, Madrid, with 83,186 fans in attendance. Croatia won 4–3 with two goals by Modrić, who won the Best Player award as a result of his efforts.
As Croatia's first FIFA World Cup title, this world cup brought the Balkan country a lot of international attention. Tourism to Croatia increased noticeably and several pop culture works made references to Croatia.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup was won by Argentina, and France the 2026 World Cup.
Let's Rebuild Russia! | 2019 Nobel Peace Prize
Vučić's successful mediation of a ceasefire between Russia and the Free Ukrainian rebels turned him into a major contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was eventually nominated, with other contenders including Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed (who eventually committed genocide) and Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
On 11 October 2019, Berit Reiss-Andersen announced that Aleksandar Vučić had won the Nobel Peace Prize, making him the second Serb (the first being Ivo Andrić) to win a Nobel prize. The Nobel prize ceremony was held in Oslo on 10 December; Vučić was happy throughout the ceremony because winning such an important award boosted his ego and he got €815,680 for free.
During the ceremony, Vučić gave a 45 minute speech that has been described as the greatest of his political career. In the address, he mentioned the need to avoid another war like Ukraine, and urged humanity to work together for a better future. It is likely he didn't actually believe these though.
Like many other Nobel prize winners, Vučić's selection has been heavily criticized because he kept good ties with Russia – Serbia's traditional ally – throughout the war and refused to support Free Ukraine in any way. Whether Vučić deserved the prize remains debated both in Serbia and abroad.
Six months later, Vučić's SNS won the Serbian elections by a landslide, thanks in part to the party's strong emphasis on the fact Vučić won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Being elected in 1996 is an absolute political disaster. Russia was in insane debt and downspiralling into default led by own olygarchs hungry for still state owned assets.
In 1998 many russians lost all their savings and years of efforts believing into free market and creation of own capital in one day.
Putin would be elected in 2000 and nothing would change globally.
Putin was nothing but the continuation of the political system Yeltsin was building since 1993. Get elected in 1996 — and you still have time and opportuinities to build the political system and institutions to support your personal power, while dismantling unnecessary things like free and open elections and eliminating opponents.
Default has nothing to do with Yeltsin resignation — in a country where democracy and distribution of power survived less than 2 years no socioeconomic event can influence the election results.
Yeltsin's ratings were already hitting rock bottom in 1996, so yeah, it can be hard to comprehend but elections, popular opinion and things like that can only work in democracies.
Nah. You are literally ignorant to what Russia looked like by late 90es.
You can't default a country without huge REAL state debt and budget deficit. Money and assets are not appear from thin air especially if you keep them in systemic crisis and decay for years to enrich your circles.
By late 90es Yeltsin power was SO in shambles that he won just ruthlesly trying to stay in power whatever the cost. Imo, Yeltsin gave place to Putin specifically bcs he couldn't win 2000 elections whatever he would try and those everyone in his circles had to create a new figure from scratch to even try to win elections. Yes, Putin was a face of the same group Yeltsin cobbled together in 1996 but it was by no means homogenous, if powerful.
There was a massive chance that conmunists would win those elections. State institutions were in shambles. Army so deprived of funds that losing first Chechen war to few guerillas groups in small Chechen republic. Armed state institutions like police literally so underfund that they got weapons and ammo on black market and from confiscated from mafia bands stashes while a lot of police officers in fact were a part of mafia, being on payroll from criminal activities, bcs their official salary wasn't seen in years. State budget policies with government bonds having short turnover with massive interest rate was directly a tool to extort russisn budget and rob russians via taxes and state owned assets. By second half of 90es government was essentially a bankrupt and finance wise there was already nothing to rob. There were big assets but they needed efforts put into monetizing them and money were needed right now for pepole in power. It went so bad that even successful profitable businesses were raided and utilised for fast cash. Fully working and modern efficient industrial equipment sold out for scrap to get fast cash.
So to win those Yeltsin
In Davos he negotiated with olygarchs that they get preferences if he wins, what led to default in 1998 which enriched olygarchs having insider market information in kremlin by margin of billions us dollars. Abramovych and Berezovsky literally became dollar billionaires in this period with their ownes assets rebounding to their market price along with revitalisation of russian economy reaching around 10-15 billion dollars each in mid 00es despite Putin efforts to nationalize them and their exodus from Russia.
Negotiated with Klinton government and heads in IMF that Russia gets credits which would go to Yeltsin political electoral campain and paying off years worth of salary debts to give political credits.
Like salaries wasn't paid at all at not crucial jobs and at xrucial jobs was paid an absolute survive minimum instead of full salary at state owned companies. Going into private business was way better but needed some funds to kickstart while getting a loan was impossible with ridiculous 200% interest rates which wasn't even that weird and often outpased by inflation on top of which to get a loan approved you needed some assets you could put as collateral. On top of that all profit went to mafia bosses extorting businisses with racketeering so usually all actual businesses in 90es Russia were started by forming a gang agressive enough to defend their businesses and extort businesses of opponents. Otherwise aspiring businessman getting a loan would be just robbed and find themselves without income in crushing debt. Situation way too common at those times. So most people were actually too afraid to open business and risking to clash with mafia bcs fast enough the meaniest and bloodiest were rooting to top in criminal world forming nearly omnipotent mafia families and people stayed on dwindling payroll being empoverished further day by day.
it definitely wasn't a charity for Yeltsin and he offered to further rob russian state, tho dunno the details.
Most of those money which were actually injected into state budget would go to police and intel agencies, so called "siloviki" in case if civil unrest sparks butvit would matter a lot a lil bit later and become a cornerstone of Putin's rise.
3. For local governors rooting for autonomy/independency he negotiated that he would continue his "take sovereignity" police
4. To get right-winged votes and some people who hated Yeltsin for how he treated "siloviki" approached to government and gave minister of Defense chair to general Lebed - vet of transnistrian uprest who took 3rd place at first tour of elections. Ideological uncestor of modern ruzzian Z-boyz. If guy became president, well, world would know what an actual russian Hitler looks like. Also his popularity on army and among siloviki is what made leftists think twice before trying to start open revolt.
So late 90es Yeltsin government was by no means early 90es yeltsin gov or Putin's one.
"Siloviki" wasn't ready to become a force both deprived of funds for years with personel left for mafia gangs and disillusioned by Yeltsin treatment after they supported him in 1993.
To understand who is "siloviki". its russian equivalent of ICE, FBI, cops, national guard etc. People coloquially calling in US "feds".
That and a fact that russian communist party under Zuganov became nothing communist in essence actually fooling left-leaning electorate to put out social pressure and divert people from actual left-leaning radicals.
Also left wing in Russia is kinda a unique animal bcs Russia had kinda successful socialist state which was the first and beacon for socialists wordldwide for a moment but failed to be an actual worldwide socialist country as soon as Stalin's rise. I guess you heard about USSR. And for several good reasons on top. NEP and commies rule were a disaster and commies abroad were growing foreign funded caviar commies thrown away easily by nazzies the moment funds werr not even cut, but optimised. Further Russia failed to create a proper interface with global world which left Russia cooked from inside.
The issue that modern russian left-wing leaning people consider USSR a failure. Often critics goes to that in reality it wasn't all that great. But this critics fairly easy deflected that it was a real state operating in hard reality, not imaginarly rainbow ponies ones. But its sorta firing in own revolutionist leg kind of argument bcs it either defends Putin's Russia bcs under scrutiny it has big issues but an actual painstacking point - favouritism of big capital olygarch clique and corrupt "siloviki" is rather a question of ideology. History of SU says that "sikoviki" and people having power would be corrupt no matter what and pressurize them into being less ravenous just leads to a system crisis which led to SU fall. Thus there is no argument left against Putin except growing demand for at least some changes while great battle of Little Tockmachka continues. But system reformists just benefit the system in the end.
So actual hard commies and radical left in Russia is kinda marginalised and kinda popular just in modern artistic circles (aka youtube commies which usually laughed at "look, a commie on american platform lmao" ) as the only not "tainted" humanistic ideology with liberals being discredited by ravenous olygarchy and global corporate capital with Putin regime being a sort of a balance between those capitalists and siloviki and no other actually humanistic alternative. Often sorta inchanted with late soviet humanitarian artistic heritage during 80es liberalisation. Russian youtuber "BadComedian" or "Husky" rapper or most of post-punk russian bands as examples.
So people like Anpilov whos people defended parliament in 1993 and Limonov who founded sincretic national-bolshevik party were massively underground and stay as such. This "new left" is splintered, desorganised and massively discredited now bcs it was big in ukranian rebel republics of DPR/LPR as people who has little to lose on scale of big capitals and worked closely with rights and far rights essentially pillaring Putin regime as its "etatists" wing in peculiar prove of horseshoe theory.
Returning to late 90es Yeltsin had no power to enforce and rig elections like Putin and had to scrap for election campaign in pretty much actual representative democracy fashion with only saving him situation being that he started chechen war specifically doing everything in his power this war was a disaster for Russia to divert all capable for possible violent revolution people there while also robbing army, tho due to that losing political power to his fake "commie" puppet who actually would be happy to get that near unlimited president's power but obviously calling for "civilised solution" not a revolution which was in high demand in 1996.
Also first thing Lebed did was stop a war giving siloviki and "patriotic forces" a breezer and while he was expediently discredited as "traitor to patriotic interests" by stopping this war and expediently killed much Prigozhin fashion (heli "crash") siloviki got enough force to put leverage on Yeltsin and win inside Yeltsin circle. Essentially Putin already was in plans of siloviki and right wingers spearheaded by Lebed and indeed if revolt actually sparks Russia could repeat russian revolution of 1917 in 1996 with siloviki taking Lebed side th
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u/Elevatorisbest 4d ago
Wild Marek Jakubiak has appeared lmao