Russia’s Contested Democracy in the 1990s

1. Human Rights in Russia:How do we evaluate the record?Dr. Jonathan Weiler Global Studies, UNC Chapel Hill

2. Russia’s Contested Democracy in the 1990s • 1993 Referendum on ‘Shock Therapy’ • 1993 ‘Bloody October’ • 1993 Constitutional Referendum • 1993, 1995 Parliamentary Elections • 1996 Presidential Elections

4. Human Rights Problems in the 1990s • Prison conditions • Violence against women • Mistreatment of “dark-skinned” migrants • Hazing in the Armed Forces • Chechnya

5. Key Human Rights Organizations • Memorial • Soldiers’ Mothers • Glasnost Foundation • Human Rights Ombudsman – Sergei Kovalov • Moscow Helsinki Group • Thousands of others

6. What do we mean by human rights? First Generation Rights – civil and political rights • Electoralism Second Generation Rights – economic and social rights Inter-personal violence?

7. Economic Collapse, 1992-1998 - Economy contracted by as much as forty percent - Tens of millions thrown into poverty - Mass privatization – “loans for shares” - Endemic corruption - Decline in life expectancy - Rosefielde: “three million excess deaths”

8. The Oligarchs • Boris Berezovsky • Mikhail Friedman • Vladimir Gusinsky • Mikhail Khodorkovsky • Vladimir Potanin • Alexander Smolensky • Vladimir Vinogradov

9. Illiberal Democracy • competitive elections • pervasive violation of rights • Breakdown of rule of law • Endemic corruption Zakaria 1997: we like Liberal Democracy because we like Liberalism and “democracy is flourishing; constitutional liberalism is not.”

10. The Putin Era

11. Decline of Political Competition • Parliament Controlled by United Russia • Putin faces no serious challengers – wins ~80% of the vote in 2000, 2004 • Essentially names his successor – Dmitri Medvedev • Abolishes direct elections for governors

12. Terrorism in Russia • Apartment Building Bombings, 1999 • Nord-Ost Theater, 2002 • Beslan School Massacre, 2004 • Suicide Bombings "We'll follow terrorists everywhere….Should we catch them in a sh*t-house, we'll kill them in a sh*t-house.“ "We allowed corruption to undermine our judicial and law enforcement system. We showed ourselves to be weak. And the weak get beaten."

13. Crackdown on Media, Civil Society • End of Independent Television • New laws limiting independent organizations • Arrests of potential opposition figures – Khodorkovsky, Nemtsov

14. Murder of Journalists • Yeltsin Era – 67 murdered (1993-1999) • Putin/Medvedev era – 98 murdered (2000-2009) Dmitry Kholodov, Anna Politkovskaya • According to Committee to Protect Journalists, only Algeria and post-invasion Iraq were deadlier for journalists

15. Russia’s Economic Revival • Real Income doubled • Poverty cut in half • Inflation stable (was 2000% in 1992)

16. According to Freedom House… • There is only one region in the world where political rights and civil liberties have been in continuous decline since 2001 -- the wide swath of territory made up of countries of the former Soviet Union, with the exception of the Baltic states.

17. Key Question • Is Illiberal Democracy better than authoritarianism if people are materially better off in the latter?