Korektoj

So, we've seen that the Yeltsin's constitution should have set a democratic framework in Russia.

However, this was before Putin became president in 2000.

His leadership marks the beginning of the erosion of already unsteady democratic institutions.

The way that Putin came to power perfectly demonstrates it.

Indeed he came to power thanks to a so-called institution called the “Dauphin”.

The Dauphin is an institution resulting from the roles repartition's complexity between the president and the prime minister.

This complexity causes big institutional deformations which can led, for example, to the misuse of certain powers by the president such as the right of nomination's misuse to reinforce his clan.

That is exactly what happened during the 1999 elections, when Yeltsin decided not to lose the power of his clan considering as a “family”.

So, the strategy was to nominate Putin as Prime Minister in 1999 in order to make sure he will be the one to assure the interim after Yeltsin resignation in the end of 1999.

So he became what some calls it a “Dauphin” during the electoral period which in reality weren't real elections, but the aim was to legitimate the Dauphin, basically the government was asking the population if they want Poutine to stay at the head of the country but as a president.

And during the elections, Putin had the time to legitimate his power through manipulating TV networks or even by using the war in Chechenya.

2) So the way he came to power shows already some scratches on the democratic picture, but the way he succeeds to stay in power also deteriorates it.

Putin led two consecutive mandates before leaving his place.

In fact, at the end of his second mandate in 2008, he refused to modify the Constitution to make a third consecutive mandate, so in turn (à son tour), he chose a “Dauphin” and he named Medvedev as the candidate running the election for Putin's party “ United Russian Party”.

Medvedev was close to him but more liberal.

So in 2008, Medvedev won the elections in the first round with more than 70% of the votes.

And then, Medvedev asked to Putin to bear the function of Prime Minister which allowed Putin to lead the State since the Government.

During his prime minister mandate, the United Russian Party has been infiltrating all of the country, placing his men at key positions, watching the medias, blending the youth into party movements such as the one called Nachi, and sending to jail, under questionable pretexts, the opponents before the elections.