In the 1990s Russia suffered an economic downturn that was, in some
ways, more severe than the United States or Germany had undergone six decades earlier in the Great Depression.
Russia came close to a serious civil conflict. The cohesion of the Russian
Federation was also threatened when the republic of Chechnya attempted to break
away, leading to the First and Second Chechen Wars.
Advised by Western governments, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, Russia embarked on the largest and fastest privatization that
the world had ever seen in order to reform the fully nationalized Soviet
economy.
Economic reforms also consolidated a semi-criminal
oligarchy with roots in the old Soviet system. By the mid-1990s Russia had a system
of multiparty electoral politics. But it was harder to establish a
representative government because of two structural problems—the struggle
between president and parliament and the anarchic party system.
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