his first year he was also wrong-footed at home.
On the 21 October 2000 there was an explosion
on the nuclear submarine, the Kursk, the pride of
the fleet. The 118 crew members were trapped on
the bottom of the icy Barents Sea. Until their oxy-
gen ran out most remained alive. But all foreign
rescue offers during the crucial early days were
rejected. The damage was blamed on a probable
collision with a US submarine. The true cause was
the explosion of a torpedo. Putin remained on hol-
iday. Popular anger mounted and Putin acted too
late. The Kurskdisaster was an indication of the
perilous state of the Russian military, of a fleet left
rotting in harbour, nuclear reactors in rusting
hulks. Military budgets had been slashed, morale
was low. Putin responded by tightening his grip.
In April 2001 he moved against the critical free
press and TV stations closing them down. The
Duma was subservient. Democracy was ‘managed’.
Putin acted against the oligarchs who had been pil-
lars of Yeltsin’s support; some fled abroad rather
than face trial at home. Internationally Putin
became more conciliatory.
After a show of force, more theatre than reality
when an advance force of paratroopers occupied
Pristina airport in Kosovo, Putin joined NATO’s
occupation, engaged in negotiations for further
nuclear disarmament with the US, was received by
President Bush on his Texan ranch in November
2001 and made no further difficulties when the
former Eastern European satellites and Poland
voted to join the European Union. Western pres-
sure to persuade Russia to end its military actions
in Chechnya also weakened after ‘September 11’,
the fighting dragged on seemingly without end.
Putin was prepared to grant a measure of auton-
omy but not independence. After a hiccup over
the Iraq war, Russian relations with the West
became watchfully cordial.
Putin projected leadership and strength. When
Chechnyan fundamentalists took control of a
Moscow theatre and held the audience hostage,
Putin’s message was that he was working night and
day in the Kremlin to save the hostages. A mishan-
dled rescue using gas to stun the Chechnyans killed
more than a hundred of their hostages as well as
the Chechnyans. But Putin was seen to have acted
decisively, he had learnt the lesson of the Kursk.
On the economic front, the Russian Federation
made a remarkable recovery. The main reason for
this was the rise in the price of crude oil which had
already begun during the last year of Yeltsin’s pres-
idency when gloom was at its height. Russia in the
new century was at last moving toward sustainable
development. Business confidence was growing,
an ambitious reform agenda was showing results,
above all there was political stability. The economy
grew strongly and inflation fell to manageable fig-
ures. There was a long way to go. Health provision
could not cope with the spread of HIV, TB and
alcoholism. There is still serious corruption and
there are weaknesses in corporate legislation,
though foreign investment returned. Forty million
Russians still live in poverty. The economy remains
too dependent on the price of oil and the export of
primary products. Reform of the military lags
behind; nor is the broadening of democracy a
prime aim. The Russian people yearn more for a
better standard of living, a better quality of life,
ahead of a more accountable democratic govern-
ment. Authority is less feared than anarchy.
Russia’s future in the new millennium began to
look much brighter than during the closing years
of the last. The world learned to appreciate the
new strongman, who in 2003 officially became a
guest of the queen in Buckingham Palace. The
royal–presidential courtesies symbolically buried
the barbarities of the Soviet era. In March 2004
Putin won the elections with overwhelming sup-
port for a second term. Since then he has increased
presidential powers at the expense of moving
towards a Western-style democracy in the belief
that it is the only way to overcome the immense
problems Russia faces, not least in the conflict in
Chechnya.
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THE SOVIET UNION, CRISIS AND REFORM 813
