In 2020, when Yeltsin first put Putin on the throne of the Russian president, Putin set up lofty ambitions for the people of all Russia, he said give me 20 years, and I will give you a strong Russia.
Now that Putin has been in power for 20 years, a new fifth term has begun. From a military point of view, Russia still has something commendable and ranks among the top in the world, after all, more than 1 million conventional armed forces and the world's largest nuclear arsenal ensure that Russia has enough voice in the world. Of course, to judge whether a country is strong, in addition to the military, it is also necessary to consider comprehensively from the dimensions of economic development, people's living standards, and national soft power. However, it is clear that in the 20 years in power, Russia under Putin's leadership has not fully achieved many of the above points.
Of course, it is not that Putin's ability to govern is not good, but that the mess left by Yeltsin is difficult to deal with, and it may be far inferior to Putin in another person. After Putin took over the presidency from Yeltsin, he quickly eliminated the disobedient Russian oligarchs, restored the country's economy to normal, and at the same time forcefully and quickly quelled the Chechen rebellion and ended the turmoil in Russia. Under this series of thunderous measures, Russia's total GDP and per capita income have ushered in a rapid growth. It has to be said that in the first 10 years of Putin's rule, Russia had a momentum of rapid development to get rid of the shadow of the former Soviet Union.
Putin
However, with the outbreak of the Georgian War, the Crimean crisis, and the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, the situation facing Russia is becoming more and more difficult, European and American countries launched joint sanctions against Russia, Russia's economic development level is much worse than before, and later foreign exchange earnings even rely mainly on foreign energy exports, Russia's economic development is once again in a dilemma.
Therefore, it can be concluded that in the last 20 years of Putin's rule, Russia has generally faced a better situation than in the early stage, but Russia's development trajectory now seems to be returning to relying on energy exports to maintain the country's finances, which shows that Russia's socio-economic structure has not improved enough. In other words, there is still a long way to go before Russia is a strong Russia.
Despite this, Putin was re-elected as president of Russia with a very high percentage of votes in this year's election. On May 7, local time, the swearing-in ceremony of Russian President Vladimir Putin was held in Moscow, officially opening Putin's fifth presidential term. With the completion of the swearing-in ceremony, Putin's 5th cabinet was officially launched.
Russia-Ukraine conflict
It is worth paying attention to what exactly can be brought to Russia after Putin starts his fifth term? In the context of the Russia-Ukraine war, Putin's re-election this time can be said to be both challenges and opportunities.
On the one hand, the Russian-Ukrainian war continues and there is still no sign of an end, and the United States has launched a new round of military aid to Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs put Zelensky on the wanted list, declared Zelensky's government illegal, and expanded the scale of the war.
This series of-for-tat confrontations has cast a shadow on the already long-delayed Russia-Ukraine war. On the one hand, the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia have reached the point of doing everything they can, Europe and the United States have launched as many as 15,000 economic sanctions against Russia, and as many as 3,500 sanctions against Russia by the United States alone, and large-scale sanctions will definitely have a negative impact on Russia's future development prospects.
Russia
On the other hand, the Russia-Ukraine war has led to a significant increase in Russia's fiscal spending, which has led to a significant increase in Russia's fiscal deficit, which has exacerbated the already difficult economic development. Therefore, the biggest problem facing Putin in his fifth term may not be the extremely deteriorating geopolitical environment caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, but the stable operation of Russia's internal economy caused by Western sanctions.
As things stand, the Russian economy is largely dependent on the export of resources. Under the sanctions of European and American countries, Russia has completely lost its ability to export to Europe and the United States. And Russia can only rely on energy exports to sustain its national finances. All in all, Russia's internal and external environment will bring a series of challenges to Putin's fifth term, and where Russia will go in the future will test Putin's ability.
At the same time, in the context of the Sino-US game, Russia may also usher in a certain turning point, that is, an opportunity. In the past two years, Sino-Russian trade and trade have ushered in a huge growth, which also provides another direction for Russia's economic development, that is, to shift the economic center of gravity of the Russian state and carry out economic cooperation with China in the Far East.
Sino-Russian relations
And economic and trade cooperation with China has injected strong momentum into Russia's economic development in 2023. So even with sanctions from the United States and the West, Russia's economic growth last year was much higher than the world average, ahead of all countries in the G7 group. In addition, the IMF predicts that Russia's economy will also boom in 2024, with growth expected to reach 3.2%. Therefore, if Putin is able to launch a policy of economic development in the Far East that is in line with the interests of both China and Russia during his fifth term of office, this may bring about a turning point for the long-term development of the Russian economy, and will also bring opportunities for the transformation of Russia's economic structure.
Finally, we often say that the world is facing great changes unseen in a century, and the development of the trend of multipolarization in the world has also given Russia the opportunity to become a pole in the world.