russia

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The State of Democracy in Russia
Russia's political landscape has been intensely scrutinized, both domestically and internationally. This is caused by its rapidly and continuously evolving democratic nature. This essay examines the role of critical political actors and institutions. It also evaluates the state of civil liberties and civil society, assessing the state’s responses to socioeconomic and security challenges.
Vladimir Putin’s leadership has been a dominant force in Russian politics. Despite constitutional term limits, his grip on power has been maintained through strategic maneuvers. This includes transitioning to the Prime Minister role before returning to the presidency. With these trends, there were concerns about the concentration of power to one individual. There was an evident lack of genuine political competition. Another aspect that influenced democracy is the federal assembly ADDIN CSL_CITATION {"citationItems":[{"id":"ITEM-1","itemData":{"author":[{"dropping-particle":"","family":"Hodgson","given":"Jayden Dean","non-dropping-particle":"","parse-names":false,"suffix":""}],"id":"ITEM-1","issued":{"date-parts":[["2021"]]},"title":"Putinism: a threat to liberal democracy in Russia?","type":"article"},"uris":["/documents/?uuid=a2f9a629-965a-4f86-b594-ad372952152f"]}],"mendeley":{"formattedCitation":"(Hodgson)","plainTextFormattedCitation":"(Hodgson)","previouslyFormattedCitation":"(Hodgson)"},"properties":{"noteIndex":0},"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}(Hodgson). The Russian Parliament consists of the State Duma and Federation Council. The legislature plays a significant role in making laws and other legislative procedures. However, it is argued that the institutions merely rubber-stamp decisions made by the executive branch. Therefore, the federal assembly has limited its ability to provide adequate checks and balances to the executive.
While Russia has multiple political parties, the ruling government’s party holds significant control. Opposition parties often face obstacles in registering and participating in elections. With this trend, the ruling has limited democratic participation because there is limited political pluralism in the country ADDIN CSL_CITATION {"citationItems":[{"id":"ITEM-1","itemData":{"ISSN":"0967-067X","author":[{"dropping-particle":"","family":"Kubiček","given":"Paul","non-dropping-particle":"","parse-names":false,"suffix":""}],"container-title":"Communist and Post-communist studies","id":"ITEM-1","issue":"4","issued":{"date-parts":[["1994"]]},"page":"423-441","publisher":"Elsevier","title":"Delegative democracy in Russia and Ukraine","type":"article-journal","volume":"27"},"uris":["/documents/?uuid=920672c4-c6a9-4908-9a2b-a59d2ca11923"]}],"mendeley":{"formattedCitation":"(Kubiček)","plainTextFormattedCitation":"(Kubiček)","previouslyFormattedCitation":"(Kubiček)"},"properties":{"noteIndex":0},"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}(Kubiček). This also directly impacts the civil liberties and human rights of the people. One core issue affected by the trend is the freedom of media and speech. Over the years, freedom of ...