Gino DePaul

Russian Political Systems

From the early 1600s Russia has always based their political systems off of
an Absolute Monarch which was when the leader had absolute power over
everything Russia and the citizens had really no say in anything. Now not everyone
throughout history was an absolute monarch but they might of done things different
ways but didnt qualify as an absolute monarch, Russia used to be a Communist
country. That hasnt changed too much until when Vladimir Putin became the leader
of Russia and this was the first time the country of Russia had a Democracy for a
long period of time. They had a little taste of life was like when Lenin was the
Leader but he didnt want Russian citizens to really have any rights and wanted to
be an absolute monarch. For the few years he was in power he thought it was a
good idea to let people own their own businesses and have a little freedom which
he thought was no big deal but then he realized that he wasnt an absolute monarch
anymore. Then he wasnt in power anymore which then came Stalin. Stalin really
had his mind based on the country being an absolute monarch once again. Now
backtrack to the past and realize that people back then had no control over things
that we use every single day. Think about that they werent aloud to have private
phone calls and many other things that people now talk about all the time would be
illegal in Russia for a very long time. If they talked bad things about the Russian
government then they would have a penalty of either jail time for a few years or
maybe even the death sentence depending on how critical the crime was, even if it
was just talking on the phone. This would be in the late years of the absolute
monarchy because they didnt have phones all the way back in the 1600s. They
would be able to hack into the phones by getting the secret police called the KGB.
Back then in the 1600s then on until they had phones they would do kind of the
same thing except they would make the kids turn against their parents and try to
get their parents to say bad things so the KGB would know who to put in jail and
who was committing these crimes. This is why people of todays world in Russia love
Putin so much they have a lot more freedom and are aloud to speak their opinion
about the current Russian political systems. In todays world people in Russia have it
so much easier than their ancestors but that doesnt mean that they have
everything perfect like they imagine. See even though Russia has gone from a
command economy to a Democratic Political system (even though it took 400
years) they still dont have that great of an economy and still a lot of issues that go
on in Russia. The lower part of the house in the Russian Federal Assembly is called
the State Duma. Duma has 450 members which are known as deputies. In the
original constitution every Duma election was held every four years but now it is
held every five years so the last one was in November 2011 then the next one
would be November 2016.The Duma headquarters are held in central Moscow.
Despite if they seem like they are in good shape they are really in the rebuilding
process and are very new to this Democratic system and dont match up to the
expectations that a lot of countries exceed to, now dont get me wrong there is still
a good amount of things wrong with the US and every other country because none
of them are perfect. The Democracy is a lot different from an Absolute Monarch and
that is a big leap and there are a lot of different aspects to the Democracy and it will

take a lot of time to adjust to that. In Russia Putin is basically known as an idol but
here in the US we despise him. Why? Well because he has made a lot of bad
decisions that affect not just Americans but also other countries and gets in wars
that dont need to be fought. He found a urn scuba diving in the Black Sea which is
very valuable and a big accomplishment but later then he admitted that it was
staged. Putin didnt really give people a chance to run against him in the elections,
so he says that he runs a democracy but we can make the argument that no, he
doesnt. Putin lies a lot to his country and to other countries which is one reason
that we dont like Putin. Another example of that is he said that he is going to sign a
document that was going to help Russia in their economy and in other places but he
backed out a few days before the signing. Even people in Russia thought this was a
terrible move. They also saw this as selfishness as well because he did what was
better for him and not what was better for Russia. Russia and the US were never
really allies in general before the time of Putin but Putin also doesnt like the US.
The only time that Russia and the United States worked together was during World
War II when they tried to beat Germany and the Nazis lead by Hitler. They ended up
winning the war and beating the Nazis and ending the Hitler era. But to sum up in
other words the Russians and the Americans dont really have much in common.
Even though we both run the same kind of governments there are a lot of different
arguments and the way that country does it compared to the other country and this
causes disputes between the two countries. Overall people cant ever complain in
Russia of the way Putin is running things because he might make his bad decisions
but he really knows how to run a country and for such a short time manage a
democracy. Overall me and Alex as individuals believe that Putin is a very good
leader and he has done a lot for Russia even though he has had some bumps in the
road.