Russians will go to the polls on Saturday, March 2, to elect a new president. Unlike our suspenseful US elections, in Russia it is all but a foregone conclusion that Dmitry Medvedev will be the winner.

Why such a farce? While hardly anyone really claims to “get” the Russian political system, it is generally agreed that Putin’s current power over the Russian public stems directly from the state’s chaotic transition during the 1990s.

Russia emerged from the ruins of the USSR on January 1, 1992 led by reformist Boris Yeltsin. Economically speaking, it was an entirely new country. The Russian nouveau riche established their positions through purchasing the most lavish of cars, furs, and mansions. The most flamboyant were members of an elite group of young billionaires known as the “Oligarchs”. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Roman Abramovich, Oleg Deripaska, names that bring up images of bad 1970s spy flicks, dominated Russian business interests.

While the Oligarchs enjoyed their imported champagne and Aston Martins, the middle and lower classes lived a much different life. For all its evils, life under the communist system included full employment and price controls for housing and basic food…provided you could find housing and a market with food still on the shelves and didn’t mind being a university educated bathroom attendant. Read More »