After the Russian Federation became independent each government that came to power coined new political terms in line with its administrative philosophy. During the Boris Yeltsin era new political terms such as “oligarch” and “family” describing the Russia of the Yeltsin era became highly popular. Since Vladimir Putin came to power these terms began to be cast aside. In line with the composition of the new Kremlin administration taking shape new political terms were coined: “Silovics” and “Petersburgers”.  During the final part of the “ailing Yeltsin administration” Russia had come to the brink of coming apart at the seams. The Putin administration spent its initial years in power mainly by trying to bring Russia together and to make it stand up. With the presidential election to be held on March 14, 2004, Russia will step into a new stage in this process.

In the wake of the oppressive Soviet regime the Russian people abruptly made their acquaintance with democracy. Due to Russian people and institutions’ lack of democratic experience the Russian state came face to face with a survival problem. However, with Putin, Russia has not only overcome the survival problem but also covered significant ground towards being a regional power once again. Now that stability has been achieved and the administration has been brought fully under control, the team that is governing the country and the opposition groups have put forth two different theses on what kind of path Russia should follow from now on in its economic development and democratization efforts. Russia was faced with the need to make a choice between the two options formulated prior to the parliamentary elections. One of these options has been named “Liberal Imperialism” by “liberal oligarch” Anatoli Chubays. The other is the “Authoritarian Statist Russia” suggested by the Kremlin team that is under the influence of the security people. Russia opted for the second option. Those who wanted Russia to develop along a liberal line suffered a big defeat in the elections for Duma. The Putin-led “Authoritarian Statist” team won a big victory. This team has now put forth a new concept of democracy to define the direction they want the Russian democracy, using a new terminology prior to the presidential election. This new concept takes as a basis the “state” rather than the “individual” and stems from the conviction that democracy should be “managed”. With this concept, called “upravlayemaya demokratya” in Russian, which we can translate as “managed democracy”, Russia and the Russian democracy are gaining a “one of a kind” type of character.

The new democracy concept of the Russian elite currently in power reflects a philosophy that is based on the high interests of the state and on a privileged team --consisting mostly of people who had worked in the security forces--that defends these interests in the name of the state and not on the individual rights and liberties. This team gets organized in all segments of the state Russian state --such as economy, defense, local administrations and bureaucracy. It also brings the media establishments under its control. The leading Russian businessmen are being forced to think along the same lines as Kremlin. Those who refuse to do so –like former Yukos chairman Mihail Hodorkovski—are thrown into prison. The Russian administrators, who embrace the “manageable democracy” concept, have an authoritarian view of the economy as well. This new team is rapidly distancing itself from the economic liberalization drive that is vitally important for Russia. There has even been talk of re-nationalization of the companies privatized during the Yeltsin era.