Russia is the only remaining authoritarian great power in Europe. It seemed for a moment in December 1991 that Boris Yeltsin would honor his pledge to install popularly sovereign democracy, but he didn't. Instead, he forced an authoritarian constitution on the nation against parliament's will in 1993, and never looked back. Vladimir Putin, Yeltsin's former secret police chief and presidential successor, subsequently intrigued his way to power, advancing his former master's hidden authoritarian agenda by more sternly repressing civil rights, political participation, balloting, and parliamentary autonomy. Oppression today isn't as harsh as the bad old Brezhnev years, but is heading that way, toward an autocracy where the monarch is supreme, with or without a ruling party.
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