Spanning across a large portion of the northern hemisphere, Russia is the largest country on Earth in terms of geography and has a population of over 142 million citizens. The nation has always fascinated the world as being somewhat of an anomaly in the minds of global media and politics.
After the decline of the USSR, Russia has been striving to rebuild its former global influence. The military intervention in the Syrian war, the disputable Crimea annexation and the ongoing conflict with Ukraine assert its claim for power in the world.
Vladimir Putin, its president since 2000 – with a 4-year term as prime minister in 2008, followed by his 2012 re-election and then again in 2018 – has imposed a growing control over the media and national institutions with rising right-wing policies and autocratic-like ruling.
While being an oil and gas-rich country, with some immense wealth in private, corporate and banking sectors, Russia is battling with growing poverty and grave danger of human rights under its current government.
It is assumed that Russian intelligence has been intervening in western democracy through social media propaganda, with an ongoing investigation into its possible collision in the U.S. voting systems during the 2018 presidential election.
