Russia

Russia was the dominant republic in the former Soviet Union and took tentative steps toward an open society and market economy in the 1990s. But during the early 2000s, under leader Vladimir Putin, its direction changed. At the end of the 1990s, this quasi-democracy pivoted to an authoritarian direction. The economic system, which had been moving toward a market economy, has been characterized by corrupt crony capitalism. During the same period, Putin’s external policy has become increasingly revisionist, designed to overturn the post-Cold War world, and aggressive.