‘EI saved Russia from the rim of the abyss! “ This was claimed by Russia’s president for a quarter of a century, in his interview for the actions of the year at the end of 2024. In his mind, Putin is her Savior, but for the Russians and the rest of the world the reality does not correspond to the conviction of the Russian president.
Twenty -five years after the presidential post, which was officially elected three months later, Russia today is a country with a shaken economy, which has been continuing an aggressive war against it for three years. It is a country under the utter control of Putin and its close environment, where democracy has been in place and institutions (justice, media) are chock -controlled by the Kremlin.
After three years of war, Russia has put its hopes on the US president, who, overturning the international post -war balance, is drawn up with Putin to “unravel” with the Ukraine problem. Putin expects the Ukrainian resolution on his own terms, which should also include the removal of Western sanctions against Moscow in order to restart the Russian economy. If all this is regarded as “Russia’s salvation”, then Putin has failed.
Putin came to power at a time when Russia was trying to recover after the chaotic era of Gelcin, which followed the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It was a country with a problematic economy, with an unstable president who was hit by the prestige internationally. “But there was a dynamic in the recovery of the economy, a dynamic and in the view of the communist past, in its transcendence. At the beginning of the first twentieth century, one could hope that Russia, at its pace, would grow financially, that it would become a democratic country. “ says in “Step” Sessil Vesie, Professor at the University of Renne, Director of the Department of Russian, Soviet and Post -Soviet Studies.
Putin did not improve the Russian economy even though he was extremely lucky. Shortly after taking up his duties, in May 2000, his prices, natural gas, nickel, bauxite of Russia began to climb and stopped only in the summer of 2008. For eight years, this “manna” was filled with his states and his states.
He was produced a lot of wealth, many more Russians began to live better, and Putin built a customer state with businessmen firing for him. However, he did not proceed with any reform, on the contrary, disrupted it.
At the same time, he consolidated his power with the Second Chechnyan war (1999-2009), which he won by establishing pro-Russian governments and thanks to the control of the army, intelligence and money. The West watched “Saga Putin” with interest, but with no apparent concern.
Not even the Chechnya war, which those who criticized, such as the independent journalist Anna Politkovskayaneither were the oligarchs being killed such as the former head of the Yukos energy colossus Michael Hodorkovskywho was not a saint, but it was a counterweight to Putin, and who was imprisoned for a decade (2003-2013), nor Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, they upset the West.
After 2008, the Russians’ relationship with Putin began to wear out. Until then, many Russians supported him because he was young, dynamic and gave another picture of Russia. In 2012, on the day he was inaugurating his third presidential term (after the “forced” bracket of the Presidency in 2008-2012, during which Putin remained prime minister), the Russians demonstrated massively reacting to Putin’s third presidential term. The protests were destroyed.
Today the Russians now realize that Putin has been in power for a long time and that their lives are not getting better, while the oligarchs live in the loudspeaker. The problem is that the Russian media does not hear any other voices only Putin’s propaganda. “In order to have free information, the Russians will have to get out of the country and the Russians who are now traveling are very few.” Says Cecil Vesie, and adds that ‘This generalized repression is indicative of that the Putin regime recognizes that the people are not on their side. ”
Because of repression, the image of the West for Russian society is unclear. Many Russians are terrified, for example that it is controlled by the FSB (secret services), that people are imprisoned because they did “like” in a post. There are Russians who oppose Putin, but how many are no one can accurately determine.
There are, of course, those who still support Putin because they have brought a regularity to their lives and because they do not see an alternative to power. Putin has exterminated all his opponents, from his Boris Nemchov, as the Alexei Navalny, while today’s Russian opposition in the diaspora is fragmented.
Once upon a time, Putin’s dream was to improve Russia through its relationship with Europe. Our falls away, it is very different, Russia is a European country, the BBC said years ago Arkady Dvorkovicformer Vice President of the Russian Government. After twenty years of authoritarianism, expansion, wars, culminating in the invasion of Ukraine, Putin’s Russia is not only a European and democratic country.
