The Collapse Of The Soviet Union And President Vladimir Putin

As stated earlier, Russia’s economy is largely based on oil. Further, throughout Russia’s existence, its political institutions have strongly remained stable do to their performance legitimacy. Therefore, the rise of oil and therefore competitive authoritarianism are not mutually exclusive. Since Putin’s election, economic growth has averaged 6.7%, however, much of this growth is directly due to rising oil prices since 1998 that have topped over 100 dollars a barrel. Rising oil prices has allowed Russia to eradicate foreign debt, establish massive reserves of hard currency, and create budget surpluses. This has in turn allowed Putin to accumulate massive amounts of wealth as well as improving his performance legitimacy. Arguably, this is a false performance legitimacy. To many in Russia, this is the best the economy has ever been, and it has allowed for Putin to easily consolidate power. Yet, with oil on the decline, Russia has effectively created an economy that can not last into the near future, and only time will tell how far they will end up

Oil has often been referred to as any economy’s lifeblood. Although this is an overemphasis, oil has been the key, nonhuman resource of the economy throughout the largest part of the 20th century. In the book “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, And Power” by Daniel Yergin, the author illustrates the political, societal, economic, and geo-strategic importance of this product.

The collapse of the communist Soviet Union ultimately led to the end of the cold war. The dissolution of the USSR in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. Thus highlighting the inferiority of communism and the superiority of western capitalism. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, however, was a result of both domestic and international factors including policies established by both the US and the Soviet leaders, most importantly Gorbachev’s ‘New Thinking’ reforms combined with the hard-line approach of Ronald Reagan. It has also been argued that the collapse of communism in eastern Europe was inevitable due to its moral bankruptcy, as well as the growing economic pressures which ultimately forced the Soviet Union to

In the year 1981, the American, anti-communist Ronald Reagan became president of the United States (Doc 70, pg.426). During the first term of his presidency, Reagan expressed a great sense of danger and threat that was deeply embedded in his general convictions regarding the nature of communism, particularly, in the Soviet Union (Renshon and Larson, pg.15). However, Reagan eventually began to express alternative views in his second term of presidency. He significantly altered his perception of the Soviet threat and accepted the idea of possibly working together with the Soviet Union towards achieving peace (Doc 70, pg.427). This transformation is reflected though Reagan’s initial hatred towards the USSR, to his cooperation with Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit, their great attempts to negotiate at the Reykjavik Summit and finally their signing of the INF treaty. Ronald Reagan transformed from an essentialist who viewed the Soviet Union as “evil” and ruled by an ideology seeking world communism and absolute power, to an interactionist who viewed the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union in terms of mutual misinterpretation (Renshon and Larson, pg. 20). This change ultimately caused Soviet-American relations to significantly strengthen throughout the 1980’s as U.S President Reagan cooperatively worked together with USSR General Gorbachev, a leader who shared in the same goal of achieving a peaceful, non-nuclear world.

After unraveling of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, fears of war breaking out between the major powers of the United States and the Soviet Union were greatly reduced. Numerous commentaries, reports, and studies arose out of the question of what to do with the excess U.S. forces, and how to reshape them for a new era (Snider & Carlton-Carew, 1996). Since the birth of the United States, the military has been an important part of the United States. The US military has been a fundamental part of foreign policy, including fostering democracy, establishing rule of law, and assisting with economic development in territories allied with the U.S. (Ludema, 2007).

In conclusion, Ronald Reagan imposed his foreign policies in order to bring the end of the Soviet Union because he regarded them as the evil empire that imposed communism. Reagan fought to bring the end of communism and the Soviet Union was the major country that was a communist based government. Reagan direct challenged the USSR into an arms race, that weakened its economy when the country spend so much money on the military advancement and development. Not only was it Reagan, but also Michael Gorbachev also imposed economic reforms of Perestroika and Glasnost that backfired. Reagan has a great impact on the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism with the assistance of Gorbachev.

During the cold war era, President Reagan’s strong anti-Soviet feelings and rhetorical “attack” style was an approach that his own administration saw as extreme and even dangerous (Rowland, p 23). And unlike many American leaders before him, who avoided the strained relations between the United States and Soviet Union, President Reagan set out to exploit and end communist tyranny. President Reagan’s devotion to ending tyranny was stronger than any other leader during the time period. For example, he criticized the Carter administration for their failure to deal with "the adventurousness of the Soviet Union" (Fisher, p 303). He believed that their foreign policy enabled the Soviet Union to view the United States in a weak and vulnerable state. President Reagan 's staunch opposition to communism and his willingness to confront the Soviet Union during a time when it was not popular, played a key role in the failure of the Soviet Union. Aiding him in his lone stand against tyranny was his rhetoric style of "ideological and moral clarity." A rhetoric style that he utilized to demonstrate a strong moral position towards the Soviet Union, while reducing the risk of conflict. In doing so he was able to set the stage for successful negotiation between the two nations (Rowland, p 24). This essay will examine Ronald Reagan 's June 12, 1987, address at the Brandenburg Gate. Mainly, the rhetoric style of "ideological and moral clarity", he utilized to exploit the Soviet Union, while

In 1989, the world saw the fall of the United Soviet Socialist Republic (U.S.S.R.), which was also known as the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was a block of 15 Communist Eastern European states that was ruled by one government with various puppet governments located throughout the states. Its collapse brought about new issues that the world had never had to deal with before. The fall of such a large block of Soviet states created many problems and some of the solutions that were used to solve these problems, as well as many of the tensions that were created during this time, still affect the world today. Some of the ramifications resulting from the Soviet Union’s collapse are still being felt; however, many problems have been solved

The conflict and subsequent invasion of the Ukraine by Russia came as a surprise to many people in the world, including to the United States intelligence community. This surprise move by the Russian government caused many members of Congress to point the blame at the intelligence community for failing to accurately predict this move, thus limiting the United States and NATOs ability to respond in a timely manner. But was there really an intelligence failure or was this action something that was

During the cold war, Soviet Russia and the U.S. disagreed on many matters, but found a common ground in appreciating technology and its instrumental value to the progress of society. Each nation glorified their contrasting examples of the ideal lifestyle, however their shared faith in technology was fulfilled in different forms. The Soviet Union had clearly attained their upper hand in the Space Race, achieving the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite and Vostok 1 which brought the first human to outer space. The US government were also acutely aware of the vulnerability of their military forces as the Soviet Union were developing advanced nuclear weaponry with potential for mass destruction. Conscious of their technological inferiority in comparison, the U.S. sought after ways to demonstrate a technological competence and restore faith in an insecure nation. The family home was praised as the symbol of American prosperity but remodeled to convince a nation that they were just as knowledgeable and proficient in technology as the Soviet Union. These modifications had a radical influence in what was considered as ‘necessary’ technologies to the ideal American home but also materialized a direct confrontation with fears of a nuclear attack on American soil. In this sense, military technology did not have a direct or literal influence on the American home during the Cold War, rather that the consciousness that such technology existed had a profound influence on

The main causes of the fall of the Soviet Union was because the Soviet Union couldn’t afford to keep up with the arms race during the cold war, the government couldn’t manage to keep the people content with things such as housing and food and communism government system completely failed in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was built on about the same territory as the Russian Empire which it succeeded. After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Socialism was a newly formed government that was developed by a philosophy. Socialism government is when property is held in common and not individually and relationship are governed. Socialism gradual transition to Communism. Communism is a political theory that Karl Marx came up with. Communism is when the society in which property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. The state of Bolsheviks indentation was to overcome national differences and rather to create one monolithic state based on a centralized economical and political system. This state was built on a Communist ideas, was eventually transformed into a totalitarian state when the Communist leadership had complete control over the country.

The fall of the Soviet Union gave childless American couples the opportunity to adopt needy, white children. Thousands upon thousands of children from Russia and Eastern Europe were adopted in New York during the 1990’s and 2000’s, and the vast majority of these adoptions produced genuinely happy families. The children were excited to have loving families and the adoptive parents were excited to have a child to love. However, some children had difficulty transitioning to life in the United States while others were victims of abuse. Almost every adoptive case I worked with had a happy ending. Every adoptive case except for one. I hesitate to say that the “child” in question was actually a child. Sometimes I think that I legitimately was dealing with pure evil in human form.

The shift away from the period of Détente is can be associated with the changing of leadership and policies of the Soviet Union beginning around the time of Khrushchev’s removal from power. With the change of leadership and governmental structure, the Soviet Union took a renewed hardline approach to populous dissent, and sought to reestablish and solidify Soviet control over its domestic territory and satellite governments. The new hardline government of the Soviet Union matched with the neo-conservative government of the United States under Ronald Reagan saw a return to earlier Cold War hostilities.

Russia's new strength is also based on its vast reserves of oil and natural gas, which as the price of crude exceeds $ 120 per barrel, give the country tremendous bargaining power, not only in its relations with countries directly dependent on its supplies as Ukraine, Germany and Hungary, but, in general, by the capacity of influence that give

The oil industry is one of great power that countries are invest in. Russia is one of the leading contenders in producing oil and exports the goods to various countries. With great resources comes great strength. Oil is of the utmost important to every country therefore, Russia has an upper hand in some respects. Moreover, the history behind the oil pipelines and how Russia connects to different countries allows for insight into the power they withhold politically and economically, and on the improvements that need to be made to continue growth in this industry.