You will be surprised, the short answer is that the Russian Government can be classified as three types – a republic, an oligarchy, and a dictatorship. This is because the Russian Government has changed significantly since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This article goes into detail to explain what type of government is Russia. Specifically, find out about the tangled condition of the Russian Government today and how it got there.
Officially Russia Is a Republican Type of Government.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, the Russian constitution established Russia as a republic. At least on paper, this is how the Russian Government is set up:
“… the President of Russia is head of state, and of a multi-party system with executive power exercised by the government, headed by the Prime Minister, who is appointed by the President with the parliament’s approval. Legislative power is vested in the two houses of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, while the President and the government issue numerous legally binding by-laws.”
Wikipedia
For Over Three Decades Russia Has Been an Oligarchy Type of Government.
An oligarchy is where the power rests with a small number of people. In the case of Russia, it has had many forms of oligarchies since the 14th century. Moreover, most, if not all, of these oligarchies have had little to no checks or balances on their own power. Subsequently, this situation occurred again with the dissolution of the Soviet Union from 1988 -1991 creating the existing Russian oligarchy system.
“…the era of Russian privatization in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The failing Soviet state left the ownership of state assets contested, which allowed for informal deals with former USSR officials (mostly in Russia and Ukraine) as a means to acquire state property.”
Wikipedia
This resulted in dozens of businessmen becoming billionaires who formed the nucleus of the Russian oligarchy system.
Present Day Russia Is a Dictatorship Type of Government.
With the rise of Vladimir Putin, Russia has slowly, but surely, transformed into a dictatorship. Indeed, for all practical purposes the Russian Government currently meets the definition of a dictatorship. Specifically, a dictatorship is defined as one person or a small group possessing absolute power without effective constitutional limitations.
Since 2000, Putin has consolidated his power to turn Russia into a dictatorship. In particular, his grab for power started with taking control of independent media outlets. This continued with the overhaul of Russia’s political institutions to centralize power under him. Additionally, he has either purged or made the oligarchs subservient to himself in his consolidation of absolute power.
See WorldAtlas’ What Type of Government Does Russia Have and BTI Project’s Russia’s Country Dashboard for more details on the Russian Government and how it works today.
For more information from Unvarnished Facts see government and politics.
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