1. LG232: Russia and post- Soviet space Dr. Ecaterina McDonagh

2. Details Dr. Ecaterina McDonagh fedoreae@tcd.ie Lectures on Thursdays 3 to 5 pm No office hours, but feel free to come up before / after lecture

10. Changes!

12. Source: Levada Center opinion poll, March 2011: http://www.levada.ru/eng/http://www.levada.ru/eng/

14. What is this course about December 1991 – collapse of the Soviet Union 15 new states Transformations: political, economic, social More than 20 years on: mixed results

15. What is this course about Russia Western NIS: Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan Soviet communism and legacies (briefly!) Mainly, developments post-1991 Understand post-Soviet political developments

16. Overview of lectures 1) Introduction. Historical context. 2) Post-Soviet democratisation: legacies and challenges 3) Russia: presidents and parliaments 4) Russia: elections 5) Russia: economy 6) Russia: foreign policy 7) Ukraine and Moldova 8) Belarus 9) Caucasus 10) Central Asia 11) International factors. Conclusions.

17. Course assessment Essay: 100 % of course grade 3500-4000 words Deadline: 9 May 3 pm Submission in both hard copy and e-copy on Moodle (details to follow) 11 essay titles Or your own one!

18. Essay titles 1.Discuss the executive-legislature relations in Russia in the context of the following statement made by Boris Yeltsin in 1993: “I don’t deny that the powers of the president in the draft constitution are considerable, but what do you expect in acountry that is used to tsars and strong leaders?” 2.Transition to democracy in Belarus: where did it all go wrong? 3.‘The story of democracy in Russia is far from over. Putin may not go down in history as the world’s greatest democrat, but neither is he its murderer’ (Sakwa 2007). Discuss. 4.How do post-Soviet regimes manipulate elections? Illustrate your arguments by reference to any three post-Soviet states. 5.Why have super presidential systems proved so popular in so many post-Soviet republics? Is a presidential system the most appropriate in your opinion for newly independent post-Soviet states? 6.‘Watching the neighbourhood’: identify and critically analyze the main features of Russia’s foreign policy towards any one of the following countries/regions: the Baltic States, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia.

19. Readings Textbooks (basic material, and most need updating) Stephen White, Zvi Gitelman, and Richard Sakwa (eds.). Developments in Russian politics 6. (6th Ed.) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. (previous editions are available in the DCU library) Richard Sakwa. Russian Politics and Society (4th Ed.). London and New York: Routledge, 2008 (the 2nd edition (1996) is available in the DCU library) Richard Sakwa. Putin: Russia’s Choice. (2nd Ed.) London and New York: Routledge, 2008 Articles!!! Communist and Post-Communist Studies; Post-Soviet Affairs; Europe-Asia Studies; Democratization; Problems of post-communism; Democratizatsiya

20. On-line sources International Crisis Group (ICG) http://www.crisisgroup.org/ Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty http://www.rferl.org/ Eurasianet http://www.eurasianet.org/ Legislationline http://legislationline.org/ Russia Today http://rt.com/ The Moscow Times http://www.themoscowtimes.com/

21. ‘Stabbing the empire: the last day of Soviet Union’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvoa25I iUEohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvoa25I iUEo