Who rules Russia today? An Analysis of Vladimir Putin and his political project (II)

Abstract

This is the second part of an article that appeared in the previous issue of this journal. There we dealt with the first years of Putin’s career, concluding that there are many missing points in the official accounts of his service as a KGB officer. We also referred to his transition to politics beside Anatoli Sobchak, in the last months before the Soviet Union collapsed. Here, in section one, we are going to consider his positions at Yeltsin’s administration, and later at the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Security Council, and the cabinet. In section two, we will analyze the main ideas in Putin’s political program, as outlined in the 2000 presidential campaign. Finally, in section three, we will see how this project has been put into practice, contrasting several explanations of the president’s aims and decisions that have been suggested by the media and the scholarly literature.