rt of Yeltsin, clashed with pro-parliamentary demonstrators, who were mainly hard-line Communists and nationalists. On October 4 Rutskoy and Khasbulatov surrendered. In February 1994 they were granted amnesty by the lower house of parliament, despite Yeltsin's opposition." In December 1994 Yeltsin sent Russian military forces into the region of Chechnya, which had declared its independence from Russia in 1991. Since that time Russia had made only minor military efforts to reclaim Chechnya. This useof military force is an example of the fact that true democracy can not exist in Russia, these tactics are Soviet-era coercive measures. During the bombing of Grozny Russian-speaking suffered as much as the natives. This was demonstrated the worst of the Yeltsin Regime. Yeltsin was using the war to expand his political base and appear as a strong leader. Over 20,000 civilians died during this conflict, which in a sense achieved nothing. The Russian economy has been put through sweeping reforms which have only proved to throw it into disarray. This mainly due to the fact that because the Soviet government has no experience in Democratic/Capitalist styles of governing, and the 70 plus years of Communist rule has left a huge dent in the Russian economy. The old style of government has left behind a legacy of corruption, price distortions, inefficient public industries and financial instability. This, combined with the need for much more extensive political reform makes this task almost impossible. The process of democratization of Russia occurred too quickly. This was done in hopes that the fast privatization of industry would hinder any chance of re-nationalizing the economy, and basically forcing this new change. At the same time privatization has contributed greatly to the popular belief that this new system is unjust. State assets were distributed disproportionately to insiders, to people willing to circumvent the law, and insome case t...
