Featuring: Philip Brooks and Gerardo Duran
Editor: Sofia Mona Holzer
Introductions: On this European history series episode, Phil and Gerardo discuss the rise of a modern czar: Vladimir Putin.
Phil: Today we're going to discuss the rise of a modern czar, which is kind of an eerie title, especially with all that's going on in Russia. So, in the year 2000, the prime minister of Russia and former KGB officer, Vladimir Putin, won the election for the presidency. When Putin took over, the government was massively unpopular and people preferred the days of the USSR. He struggled to handle Russian oligarchs, dealt with the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, and began the Second Chechen War. He skillfully handled all of these crises, mostly by gaining support from the oligarchs and garnering widespread support from the Russian people. In fact, the United Russia party has no platform other than the dedication to Putin.
Phil: During his second term, he consolidated more power and gained new control over the electoral process, as well as the media propaganda. This gave him the ability to remain in power as long as he liked. Further, he pursued more reforms in education and agriculture and funded them via higher taxes on oligarchs. This lost him some support, so he began arresting members of the press and detained dissenting oligarchs. Moreover, he essentially took control of the judicial system so that he could not be tried for any of his offenses and ensured his political opponents were never to be seen again.
Phil: By 2008, he was ineligible to run for re-election because of the term limit, but ran Dmitry Medvedev and became his Prime Minister. Even so, he lost no power as this was really just a ceremonial switch in title. But by 2012, he regained his position as president, extended the length of a term, and declared that there will be no term limit through his presidential decrees. Also by this time, Putin learned how to use referendums to claim legal legitimacy while simultaneously rigging the elections. During this time, he also annexed Crimea from Ukraine, which lost him legitimacy from the rest of the world as he was ousted from the G8, now called the G7. This didn't matter since by the election of 2018, the Russian Federation's constitution was essentially meaningless as, Vladimir Putin was a glorified czar and had the support of the vast majority of the Duma with United Russia's control.
Phil: He did, however, face opposition from a liberal and Democratic candidate named Alexei Navalny, who received support from many Russians as well as almost all other free countries. Naturally, he was punished and poisoned by the Russians, fled to the UK, and returned only to be detained by Putin. Meanwhile, and much like the rest of the world, Russia struggled with the COVID-19 pandemic, but more significant was the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. This was heavily condemned by the West as an egregious and unnecessary act as Putin tried to justify his actions as the de-Nazification of Ukraine under Volodymyr Zelenskyy. By the way, it is ironic that he said that it was de-Nazification because Zelensky is Jewish. This was all because Ukraine was about to join NATO, which was a threat to Putin's dominance there. While this is an ongoing conflict, this does not appear to be slowing down and will likely continue at least for the foreseeable future. Gerardo, is there anything that you'd like to mention here?
Gerardo: Yeah. After he comes back to his second presidency, he makes a heavy use of referendums. Referendums are basically where he puts the vote out to the people and of course, the people will “support” him. And this really demonstrates a gentle transition into authoritarianism because he gently eases into that power. Specific examples of leaning into the power is how during the course of his time in office, he's become more comfortable with making executive decisions based on who can and cannot rule in regional roles. For example, he has control over who can and cannot run for governor positions for Duma seats. So anyone he doesn't like, he takes the liberty of removing them from the ballot or discrediting them completely. This goes on to the current conflict in Ukraine, because he has become the most powerful figure in the Russian government and everyone is scared to speak out against him in fear of retribution. So, one of the reasons that things have escalated so quickly is because no one will say no to him. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out in the future, as Phil said.
Phil: Right. With that, our European history series is complete, and we now see Russia's authoritarianism truly come to light with the rise of a modern czar: Vladimir Putin. So, thanks for reading.
Fin~
Editor’s Note: Thank you so much for reading! We hope you enjoyed this episode and the rest of the European history series.