Publishing and broadcast media

• Main national newspapers: There are 285 daily newspapers, including Izvestiya, Komsomolskaya Pravda, and Trud
• Television stations: 2 main national and regional services, partly state-owned, several localized independent channels
• Radio stations: 1 main state-run service, broadcasting 2 channels, 1 foreign broadcasting service, several independent stations

There is growing concern over state control of the media. Bias in TV reporting, rife under Yeltsin, continues under Putin. Reporting on Chechnya is subject to particular pressure. The NTV network, flagship of exiled magnate Vladimir Gusinsky, was taken over in 2001 by the state-run gas company Gazprom; in 2005, Gazprom also bought independent newspaper Izvestiya. The remaining independent national broadcaster, TVS, was shut down due to poor finances in 2003. Critical editorial staff have been dismissed from the daily Sevodnya and weekly Itogi. Many Russians have satellite dishes and tune in to CNN and other Western channels.

Argumenty i Fakty is the best-selling weekly paper, with a circulation of nearly three million. Trud is the biggest-selling daily.

Overall, 9% of the population have access to the Internet, but use is concentrated among Muscovites.

• Main languages spoken: Russian, Tatar, Ukrainian, Chavash, various other national languages
• Population density: 8/km2 (22/mi2) (Population density low)

The urban/rural population split

Religious persuasion

Ethnic makeup

Population age breakdown

Within the Russian Federation there are 57 "nationalities" with their own republic or territory, and a further 95 (who make up just 6% of the population) without a territory. The boundaries of the republics, and Soviet-era persecution, ensure that ethnic Russians are dominant almost everywhere. The minorities include Turkic speakers, Finno-Ugrians, Muslims, Buddhists, indigenous Arctic peoples, and the various peoples of the Caucasus. Russians form by far the largest single group, and the dominance of Russian culture and Orthodox Christianity is supported by the federal state. The forced use of the Cyrillic script is one of a number of points of conflict between the republics and Moscow. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia's quest for a renewed national identity has led to a rise in right-wing extremist groups. Violence has been targeted at people from the north Caucasus, central Asia, and the dark-skinned in general. Antisemitism is also increasing.

The collapse of the Soviet Union has also been followed by a marked increase in materialism and a greater expression of politics and Russian Orthodoxy. The expensive rebuilding of Moscow's Church of Christ the Savior symbolized this change. The strong revival of Orthodox Christianity is boosted by legal recognition of its "special role" in Russia's history. Many small minority faiths have been unable to meet strict new registration requirements.

Though the fall of communism has brought more opportunities in business and politics for some women, for others it has meant resorting to very badly paid menial work. Domestic abuse has also increased. Most Russians have very modest living standards and were further impoverished by the economic turmoil of the 1990s.

• Dates of last and next legislative elections: L. House 2003/2007 U. House Varying
• Head of state: President Vladimir Putin

The government is responsible to the Duma, but executive power lies firmly with the president.

Profile

President Boris Yeltsin's second term (from 1996) was overshadowed by his health problems, economic crisis, and corruption. Under his rule a number of so-called "oligarchs" gained considerable power, snapping up control of the liberalizing economy. Dramatic changes of government personnel were another characteristic of this period, as Yeltsin confronted the Duma in both 1998 and 1999 over his choice of prime minister.

Vladimir Putin, a little-known former head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), was unexpectedly nominated prime minister in 1999 and was made heir apparent to Yeltsin. He took over in an acting capacity on New Year's Eve 1999 and was resoundingly elected as president a few months later.

He has greatly consolidated his position since, tackling the power of the business "oligarchs," and of Russia's 89 regional governors, with his program of centralization. The conflict in Chechnya, though internationally damaging to Putin's image, has by contrast been a key element in his domestic appeal as a strong leader. His popularity was shaken by criticism of his handling of the Kursk submarine disaster, in which 118 sailors died in August 2000. However, the marked improvement in the economy during his first year in office stood greatly to his credit in popular opinion, as it also did to that of Putin's first prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov (2000–2004).

Putin's support within the Duma was consolidated by the sweeping election victory in 2003 of the UR party, which pushed the once mighty Communists into a distant second place not far ahead of the ultranationalist LDP. Many pro-market center-right parties failed even to break the minimum 5% support barrier for representation in the Duma. Observers in the West were wary of the blatant bias in the all-powerful state-run media in favor of UR. Similar criticisms were made of the presidential poll in 2004, in which Putin won over 70% of the vote. Two weeks before the election he appointed civil servant Mikhail Fradkov as prime minister.

Main Political Issues

Centralization versus regionalism

Nation-based separatism is brutally suppressed. Nowhere has this been made clearer than by the ferocious military campaign in Chechnya. Begun under Yeltsin in 1994, the conflict there has dragged on despite declarations of an end to the war in 2000 and 2002. The installation of a pro-federal government and constitution in Chechnya in 2003 has transformed the battle into a civil conflict.

The Turkic republic of Tatarstan has theoretically buried its own secessionist desires, signing a new federation treaty in 1994. Nonetheless, regional autonomy remains a powerful issue, and many of the 21 republics continue to have laws which are out of synch with the central Russian constitution.

Influence accumulated under Yeltsin by Russia's 89 regional governors was reversed by Putin's efforts to concentrate power in the presidency. Control of police and taxation has been centralized in seven huge federal districts, responsible only to Putin, and the governors have been stripped of their seats in the upper house. Separatist terrorism has encouraged further sweeping centralist reforms.

Crime and corruption

Crime levels rose alarmingly under the post-Soviet regime. Widespread bureaucratic corruption was countered by the power acquired by business tycoons, the so-called "oligarchs," who snapped up privatized industries at bargain prices. Putin launched a crusade against them, highlighted by the arrest and imprisonment of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003 and the punitive tax demands against his oil conglomerate Yukos in 2004.

Political violence

A number of high-profile murders of Duma members and regional administrators has rocked Russian politics in recent years. Always blamed immediately on contract killings, the assassinations attest to the apparent links between organized crime and the political mainstream.