Another "Cold" War?

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As an ex-KGB agent, Putin entered Russian politics relatively unknown. Putin was officially elected into office on March 26th, 2000 beating Gennady Zyuganov's second run for presidency 52.6% to 29.3%. Putin's First term was largely uneventful in terms of relations with the United States and the west other than placing the blame of Russia's economic woes on western influences tied to Yeltsin's presidency. Throughout both terms Russia's economy steadily increased an average of 7% a year, mostly thanks to utilizing Russia's energy supplies.

Thanks to the steady gains in Russia's economy and corruption reform, Putin won his second term as president in a landslide victory of 71.2% against his closest competitor, Communist Nikolai Kharitonov's. Putin's second term is where most of the progress was made in shaping the Russia of today. A sense of national pride was restored to Russia by the 2007 promotion of a history manual on Russia between 1945 and 2006, which portrayed Dictator Joseph Stalin as a cruel but successful leader. Putin was widely criticized by Russian liberals and the west for failing to protect the freedom of the media. On both Yeltsin's and Putin's watch, several reporters had been killed after exposing government corruption and organized crime in Russia.

Putin reluctantly ended his second term in 2007 as Russia's president by proposing the limit for presidential terms be extended to six years. He ended 2007 by endorsing the current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's. Medvedev went on to win the Russian 2008 Presidential election with 70.2% of the vote against a second run from Gennady Zyuganov. Medvedev vowed to continue Putin's legacy and reassigned him again as Russia's Prime Minister. Although Medvedev and Putin honoured Russia's constitutional limit of two terms per president, many in Russia (and the rest of the world) still view Putin as being the one calling the shots.

Propaganda in the Media

After the United States media frenzy rallying for war in Iraq in 2003, some have questioned the freedom of the media in the United States. Indeed, the firing of Phil Donahue for questioning the motives behind the war in Iraq was an injustice. The loss of one's job can be upsetting; however, it pales in comparison to the loss of one's life. The murders of several Russian who have dared to question their country's military actions and the fact that most of Russia's major media companies are still state-owned is a testament to Russia's control over their media. Yet, Americans having trouble getting their anti-American views published in the United States have plenty of opportunities for you in the Russian media. A visit to a Russian state-owned news site will provide you with the opportunity to read numerous anti-American columns written by Americans, from America.

A new search site is being developed by Communists in Russia named Engels, after the German Communist Theorist Friedrich Engels. The aim of this site is to provide Russia with a search engine to compete with their current number one search engine, Yandex. What make Engels different is that it is designed to block out content from dating, porn and information on world leaders such as Boris Yeltsin and George W. Bush who have worked against the Communist ideals. A 2005 poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center shows the percentage of Russian's former censorship in television had grown from 63% to 82%. This data supports the theory of the potential success theory for the Engels search engine.

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