Russia The Mock Democracy Essay

Nicholas Von Shats

COR 260: Democracies

Professor Allen-Pennebaker

23 April 2014

Russia: The Mock Democracy

Russia is the largest country on Earth and its territory expands to 17,098,242 sq km with 16,377,742 sq km composed of land and 720,500 sq km of water. Russia houses a population of approximately 142,470,272 citizens with 10.523 million residing in Russia's capital, Moscow. Russia's conventional name is the Russian Federation and in the past used to be called the Russian Empire and more recently, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic or the USSR before the fall of communism during late 1980s and early 1990s. After the fall of communism and collapse of the USSR in 1991, Russia's first democratically elected president, Boris Yeltsin attempted to reform Russia into a democratic nation. Today Russia's attempts at becoming a democratic nation have failed, it has become a mock democracy with their elections being unfair, the courts no longer independent, and political oppositions are not tolerated.

"For hundreds of years, dictators have ruled Russia. Do they still? In the late 1980s, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev launched a series of political reforms that eventually allowed for competitive elections, the emergence of an independent press, the formation of political parties, and the sprouting of civil society. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, these proto-democratic institutions endured in an independent Russia" (McFual). However history has shown how Russia has always been an anti-democratic country; power having shifted to authoritarian rule under both the Communists and the Russian Tsars. Under the previous authoritarian rule, Russian citizens were stripped of their rights and freedoms, but in t...

... middle of paper ...

...d of being a homosexual or if they told others if they were. Similar laws outlawing “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships” among Russian youth had been passed in over 11 regions in Russia since 2006. A majority of the anti-gay legislation had been passed in secret, with very little mention in the media outside of Russia until people began to discuss its negative repercussions in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games. When news of the anti-gay legislation grew in popularity around the world, many questioned whether LGBTQ athletes and allies would be safe in Russia and whether countries should consider push to ban Russia from its own Winter Games (Zirin). This anti-gay legislation has led to an increase in violence and harassment aimed at the country’s LGBT community and in May 2013,three homophobic murders had been reported in various regions of Russia.