DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA: THE 2020 CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM AND THE US CRITICISM OF PUTIN

Authors : Pınar Özden Cankara, Naciye Karigin

Pages : 48-69

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Publication Date : 2024-08-21

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Today, the Russian Federation is the second great power in the international system after the United States. Moreover, Russia has continued its aggressive foreign policy approach, which started with the annexation of Crimea, with the invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, domestic and foreign developments in this country attract the attention of the international community. Since 1991, the country has had a federative structure based on a semi-presidential system. After the Soviet Union, the country tried to transition to a Western-type liberal democracy. In 2000, Vladimir Putin, who became the President of Russia, started the process of change in the country by reorganizing the administrative structure of the country in order to strengthen the central authority. In the following period, President Putin started to adopt an authoritarian attitude towards the Russian bourgeoisie called oligarchs, opposition journalists who criticized him, civil society organizations and opposition parties. The legitimacy of the elections held under President Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for twenty-four years, including his term as Prime Minister, has been frequently questioned, especially by the American media and civil society organizations. On top of all these debates, the amendment of some articles of the constitution in 2020, opening the path to power for President Putin until 2036, and the transformations that will also affect non-Russian minorities after the Ukrainian War have caused President Putin to be seen as the \"new tsar\". The hypothesis of this study is that Western-type liberal democracy has not been developed in Russia. The study first analyzed the structure on which the Russian political system is based and then analyzed the content of the articles amended in 2020. The study also investigated how the leading US media outlets Associated Press and The New York Times, as well as the Human Rights Foundation, Atlantic Council and Wilson Center, analyzed both the amendments to the Russian Constitution and the constitutional referendum process. The study concludes that US-based organizations view President Putin as a dictator and consider not only the 2020 constitutional referendum but also some other elections in the country as illegitimate due to voter fraud and the fact that independent monitors were not allowed to observe them. The experiences of some dissident Russian journalists and politicians have also strengthened the argument that Russia is an anti-democratic country.
Keywords : Vladimir Putin, Rusya Federasyonu, demokrasi, anayasa