History UsefulNotes / TheNewRussia

* In ''[[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Call Of Duty 4]]'', Sergeant Kamarov says, "Welcome to the new Russia, Captain Price." In the next game, they invade America. Although it's more of a Soviet Russia and not a New Russia. Where they get the manpower and money to simultaneously invade ''every single major Western power'' is anyone's guess...

While the TricoloursWithRustingRockets retain the red star on their aircraft, the proposed new formal uniform is somewhat Tsarist looking, the old Slavic-colours flag is back and RedOctober is replaced with a somewhat controversial "National Unity Day" which takes place three days earlier and is a popular time for various far-right rallies.

Russia now has a problem with TheMafiya, general corruption and a lack of money, although these three are being somewhat dealt with. Following the general decay of... everything during the nineties, the government has been hard-pressed to select which sectors were in the most urgent need of restructuring/financing, permitted by the improving conditions. The military industry, hydrocarbons extraction, and other "marketable" goods came first, and this along with sudden exposure of the economy to the laws of demand left the notoriously bloated and inefficient heavy industries inherited from the USSR to [[NoBudget fend for themselves]]. These either adapted to the situation by scraping up investments and selling abroad, or were merged into large state-owned conglomerates. But annual budgets are not limitless and other sectors were also set aside, resulting in crumbling public infrastructure (education was mostly unaffected, thankfully), under-employment, and the problems of the USSR's frankly shoddy environmental record. Chechnya and terrorism are a rather a big issue as well. The far right is an increasingly serious problem; neo-Naziism, of all things, is increasingly popular in Russia (because anyone who killed 20 million Soviet citizens must have had a very good reason?), and various fascist gangs attack anyone who doesn't look right on the street. There are homeless war veterans, homeless college-degree holders, [[VodkaDrunkenski more alcoholism than ever before]], and an almost Singapore-sized (but much-discussed) demographic crisis.

And as if all this weren't bad enough, the Russians, who had spent 75 years being CommieLand after spending several hundred years on the periphery of Europe, were thrown straight into the rawest sort of free-market capitalism with the fall of the USSR. They fell for all sorts of scams; one particularly notorious {{Ponzi}} Scheme, MMM, conned 5 to 40 million Russians out of US $10 billion. (Not 10 billion rubles, 10 billion US dollars.) (And now, as of 2011, [[OnlyMostlyDead it's back!]])

Thus, Russia is a pretty straightforward example of a CrapsackWorld right now; and Russians writing about these problems tend to AccentuateTheNegative and adhere to the far Cynical end of SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.


It is also worth noting, that because of a lack of conscript discipline, the compulsory military service is a boogeyman for the Russian youth, because nowadays soldiers ruthlessly bully each other, there are frequent murders or suicides among soldiers (possibly over 300 total by now).[[note]]This has been going on since the late sixties, though never in the generalized fashion experienced nowadays. The length of the military service has been reduced to attempt to deal with this.[[/note]] Because of these reasons, [[DraftDodging most of the youth try to get higher education]] - Russia has the second largest amount of universities in the world - but low funding and the legacy of Soviet preferences (if it is militarily relevant, it's a priority) means that the education system is good at producing engineers and technical specialists, but fundamental researchers in all but [[{{Nanomachines}} a few prioritized disciplines]] have to join foreign faculties or organize themselves : only the country's main university is (low) in the world top 100.[[note]]Like everything about university rankings this is a subject of debate, but around 80 is where LMSU is at in most lists.[[/note]]

Right now Moscow is a [[CityNoir big and modern city]]. People there tend to have fair incomes but suffer from bad ecology, ethnic violence and many other problems; on the other hand, economical inequality is more striking in Moscow than anywhere else, since it has a really filthy rich upper class, a tenuous middle class and lots of lower-class people. Research activities and newly profitable commercial developments such as electronics are also quite centralized there and, to a lower extent, in regional capitals. Since the policies of equal development of the USSR, which were over-focused on heavy industries, died with it, rural parts of Russia are [[{{Ruritania}} very very poor]] compared to the capital city. The most notable exceptions are St.Petersburg which literally is a second capital, and quickly developing, often oil rich Siberian regions. In the countryside of southern (Central Asian) and western (European) Russia, there is no middle class to speak of and unemployment is a serious issue, corruption is overwhelming, oligarchy is on its march and right now there is more violence and crime than there was during infamous "Russian Nineties".
In addition, [[RedshirtArmy the army is somewhat of a laughing stock]] due to the constant bickering between design companies, production facilities, and the generals for who gets [[NewTechIsNotCheap funding priority this year]]. No wonder the nostalgic mood is very popular.

Some political pundits like to compare the modern Russia to the last years of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia. Like Tsarist (Imperial) Russia, modern Russia has an economy dependant on selling raw natural resources. Like in Imperial Russia, most industries are owned by foreign {{Mega Corp}}s or are government monopolies, the rest are under the control of the current president's pet oligarchs. Putin, like Alexander III, reversed many liberal reforms of the previous reign, and Medvedev even looks like Nicholas II. Like in Imperial Russia, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing alarmingly fast. The pogroms (race riots) are back in full swing, although nowadays they target Caucasians (people from Caucasus, not generic whites) and Central Asians rather then Jews. The army is the same hapless redshirts, the police are the same authoritarian riot-stamping goons, the parliament is the same rubber-stamp body and even has the same name (State Duma) as the Tsarist parliament, and the radical opposition is slowly but stably growing. And, like Imperial Russia, it is confronted with a MortonsFork of external politics: ally itself with [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire an old superpower that rules the seas]] [[EagleLand and which was the enemy number one for a long time]], or [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany a new, rapidly developing, land-based]] [[UsefulNotes/{{China}} industrial powerhouse]]? What happens next? [[WorldWarThree Second]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne Imperialistic War]]? [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Second]] [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Civil War?]]

There are other commentators meanwhile who tend to think that Russia with its brand new "sovereign democracy" is, despite it all, in a position to remain a global power - and wildcard - for the immediate future. They argue that the current state of affairs under Putin is a response to what some Russians claim as the failure of Western liberal reforms in TheNineties. And if its recent activities in the Middle East are any indication, especially Syria, it still seems premature to write the country off just yet. The events of the Crimean crisis of 2014 also lend credibility to the theory that the federal regime is asserting its independence from the West and strengthening its militarist democracy. However, the Putinist government still remains crypto-Tsarist/Soviet, strengthening religious fervor and encouraging every reactionary idea as well as reviving Soviet era policies. And some of the ideologues rising up to power in the Russian-backed Eastern Ukraine, [[TheUnfettered unfettered]] by the international norms, openly claim succession to the [[UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRifles White Guard]] ideologies of the Russian Civil War, or the [[RedsWithRockets Red Army]] of WWII fighting [[ThoseWackyNazis neo-Nazis]] that allegedly run the new Ukrainian government. Even their breakaway state in eastern Ukraine is called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiya_%28confederation%29 Novorossiya]] which literally translates to ''New Russia'' - an old Imperial term for the region revived by the rebels.

Is Russia, these days, crypto-Tsarist, or is it crypto-Soviet? Or is it possible to be both? The government is socially conservative and pretty much neo-Tsarist, but the people want the good old days of the USSR back. Which isn't to say they want Communism back but, the days when Russia was reasonably well-off, and when it mattered in the world (Communists are rare in Russia, although by the 1960s, they were pretty rare in the Soviet Union as well). This creates a domestic Morton's Fork to go with the international one: the ruling class dreams of being neo-Tsarist [[FeudalOverlord feudal overlords]], and will fight tooth and nail against any revival of Soviet policies; the populace dreams of not being ruled by neo-Tsarist feudal overlords, and will fight tooth and nail ''for'' the revival of Soviet policies, or at least the economic ones. Alienating the elites means economic disaster; alienating the populace means protests, probably much larger and more dangerous than those of 2011 (which were mostly limited to the middle class). The one thing that the two sides agree on is that pro-Western liberals should be given the boot, and Russia should be de-Americanized; and so, this is the one thing that's consistently happening, while the government attempts to balance between the people and the elites and prevent the return of another full-blown [[RedOctober civil war]] from breaking out.

Is Russia, these days, crypto-Tsarist, or is it crypto-Soviet? Or is it possible to be both? The government is socially conservative and pretty much neo-Tsarist, but the people want the good old days of the USSR back. Which isn't to say they want Communism back but, the days when Russia was reasonably well-off, and when it mattered in the world (Communists are rare in Russia, although by the 1960s, they were pretty rare in the Soviet Union as well). This creates a domestic Morton's Fork to go with the international one: the ruling class dreams of being neo-Tsarist [[FeudalOverlord feudal overlords]], and will fight tooth and nail against any revival of Soviet policies; the populace dreams of not being ruled by neo-Tsarist feudal overlords, and will fight tooth and nail ''for'' the revival of Soviet policies, or at least the economic ones. Alienating the elites means economic disaster; alienating the populace means protests, probably much larger and more dangerous than those of 2011 (which were mostly limited to the middle class). The one thing that the two sides agree on is that pro-Western liberals should be given the boot, and Russia should be de-Americanized; and so, this is the one thing that's consistently happening, while the government attempts to balance between the people and the elites and prevent the return of the [[RedOctober Civil War]].

* The gritty drama film ''Film/{{Leviathan}}'' is an extremely cynical portrayal of government corruption in modern Russia and how its ruinous effects on regular people in the country. The film was so condemnatory of the government that it's actually [[BannedInChina banned in its native country]].

** ''Me Too'' is a re-telling of Tarkovsky's {{Film/Stalker}}... in The New Russia!

There are other commentators meanwhile who tend to think that Russia with its brand new "sovereign democracy" is, despite it all, in a position to remain a global power - and wildcard - for the immediate future. They argue that the current state of affairs under Putin is a response to what some Russians claim as the failure of Western liberal reforms in TheNineties. And if its recent activities in the Middle East are any indication, especially Syria, it still seems premature to write the country off just yet. The events of the Crimean crisis of 2014 also lend credibility to the theory that the federal regime is asserting its independence from the West and strengthening its militarist democracy. However, the Putinist government still remains crypto-Tsarist/Soviet, strengthening religious fervor and encouraging every reactionary idea as well as reviving Soviet era policies. And some of the ideologues rising up to power in the Russian-backed Eastern Ukraine, [[TheUnfettered unfettered]] by the international norms, openly claim succession to the [[RussiansWithRifles White Guard]] ideologies of the Russian Civil War, or the [[RedsWithRockets Red Army]] of WWII fighting [[ThoseWackyNazis neo-Nazis]] that allegedly run the new Ukrainian government. Even their breakaway state in eastern Ukraine is called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiya_%28confederation%29 Novorossiya]] which literally translates to ''New Russia'' - an old Imperial term for the region revived by the rebels.

One particular subtrope associated with The New Russia is the "Russian Nineties", which is {{the Theme Park Version}} of the Yeltsinist Russian Federation. Everyone except [[TheMafiya the gangsters]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the oligarchs]] is starving poor, crime is rampant, the rubles have RidiculousExchangeRates, and the whole place is GrimDark. Basically, the Great Depression-era USA meets {{Ruritania}}. When {{speculative fiction}} extrapolated from this trend, it usually added {{Cyberpunk}} into the mix to create an UpToEleven picture of a failed state, where masses do starve in droves, and the whole place is overtly run as a confederacy of mob families. The Nineties ended with Putin coming to power and oil money coming to town, but they surely can make a [[NotQuiteDead comeback]] because of the worldwide financial crisis, which is what everyone was expecting in 2009-early 2010. The economy (the Russian one at least) has since recovered, but lots of previous problems persist regardless.

Some political pundits like to compare the modern Russia to the last years of TsaristRussia. Like Tsarist (Imperial) Russia, modern Russia has an economy dependant on selling raw natural resources. Like in Imperial Russia, most industries are owned by foreign {{Mega Corp}}s or are government monopolies, the rest are under the control of the current president's pet oligarchs. Putin, like Alexander III, reversed many liberal reforms of the previous reign, and Medvedev even looks like Nicholas II. Like in Imperial Russia, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing alarmingly fast. The pogroms (race riots) are back in full swing, although nowadays they target Caucasians (people from Caucasus, not generic whites) and Central Asians rather then Jews. The army is the same hapless redshirts, the police are the same authoritarian riot-stamping goons, the parliament is the same rubber-stamp body and even has the same name (State Duma) as the Tsarist parliament, and the radical opposition is slowly but stably growing. And, like Imperial Russia, it is confronted with a MortonsFork of external politics: ally itself with [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire an old superpower that rules the seas]] [[EagleLand and which was the enemy number one for a long time]], or [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany a new, rapidly developing, land-based]] [[UsefulNotes/{{China}} industrial powerhouse]]? What happens next? [[WorldWarThree Second]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne Imperialistic War]]? [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Second]] [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Civil War?]]

* Vladimir Sorokin's dilogy of dystopias ''The Day of Oprichnik'' and ''The Sugar Kremlin'' describes future Russia as a mix of New Russia and pre-{{Peter The Great}} Muscovite TsaristRussia, with a large dose of CyberPunk and PostModernism.

Is Russia, these days, crypto-Tsarist, or is it crypto-Soviet? Or is it possible to be both? The government is socially conservative and pretty much neo-Tsarist, but the people want the good old days of the USSR back -- which is to say, the days when Russia was reasonably well-off, and when it mattered in the world. (Actual believers in Communism are rare in Russia; but by the 1960s they were pretty rare in the Soviet Union, too.) This creates a domestic Morton's Fork to go with the international one: the ruling class dreams of being neo-Tsarist [[FeudalOverlord feudal overlords]], and will fight tooth and nail against any revival of Soviet policies; the populace dreams of not being ruled by neo-Tsarist feudal overlords, and will fight tooth and nail ''for'' the revival of Soviet policies, or at least the economic ones. Alienating the elites means economic disaster; alienating the populace means protests, probably much larger and more dangerous than those of 2011 (which were mostly limited to the middle class). The one thing that the two sides agree on is that pro-Western liberals should be given the boot, and Russia should be de-Americanized; and so, this is the one thing that's consistently happening, while the government attempts to balance between the people and the elites and prevent the return of the [[RedOctober Civil War]].

* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4'', Sergeant Kamarov says, "Welcome to the new Russia, Captain Price." In the next game, they invade America. Although it's more of a Soviet Russia and not a New Russia. Where they get the manpower and money to simultaneously invade ''every single major Western power'' is anyone's guess...

Some political pundits like to compare the modern Russia to the last years of TsaristRussia. Like Tsarist (Imperial) Russia, modern Russia has an economy dependant on selling raw natural resources. Like in Imperial Russia, most industries are owned by foreign {{Mega Corp}}s or are government monopolies, the rest are under the control of the current president's pet oligarchs. Putin, like Alexander III, reversed many liberal reforms of the previous reign, and Medvedev even looks like Nicholas II. Like in Imperial Russia, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing alarmingly fast. The pogroms (race riots) are back in full swing, although nowadays they target Caucasians (people from Caucasus, not generic whites) and Central Asians rather then Jews. The army is the same hapless redshirts, the police are the same authoritarian riot-stamping goons, the parliament is the same rubber-stamp body and even has the same name (State Duma) as the Tsarist parliament, and the radical opposition is slowly but stably growing. And, like Imperial Russia, it is confronted with a MortonsFork of external politics: ally itself with [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire an old superpower that rules the seas]] [[EagleLand and which was the enemy number one for a long time]], or [[ImperialGermany a new, rapidly developing, land-based]] [[{{China}} industrial powerhouse]]? What happens next? [[WorldWarThree Second]] [[WorldWarOne Imperialistic War]]? [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Second]] [[RedOctober Civil War?]]

->''Everything the Soviets ever told us about Communism was a lie. Unfortunately, everything they told us about capitalism was true.''

->“"The Soviet Union? I thought you guys broke up?"
->"YES, THAT'S WHAT WE WANTED YOU TO THINK. [[EvilLaugh HA HA HA HA.]]"”
-->-- TheSimpsons

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

Russia now has a problem with TheMafiya, general corruption and a lack of money, although these three are being somewhat dealt with. Following the general decay of... everything during the nineties, the government has been hard-pressed to select which sectors were in the most urgent need of restructuring/financing, permitted by the improving conditions. The military industry, hydrocarbons extraction, and other "marketable" goods came first, and this along with sudden exposure of the economy to the laws of demand left the notoriously bloated and inefficient heavy industries inherited from the USSR to [[NoBudget fend for themselves]]. These either adapted to the situation by scraping up investments and selling abroad, or were merged into large state-owned conglomerates. But annual budgets are not limitless and other sectors were also set aside, resulting in crumbling public infrastructure (education was mostly unaffected, thankfully), under-employment, and the problems of the USSR's frankly shoddy environmental record. Chechnya and terrorism are a rather a big issue as well. The far right is another large problem, as fascist gangs attack anyone who doesn't look right on the street. Also, there are people with a college education and war veterans literally out on the streets, [[VodkaDrunkenski more alcoholism than ever before]], and a much-bewailed demographic crisis. Finally, Russians, unused to capitalism after 75 years of being CommieLand, manage to get suckered into all manner of scams; one particularly notorious {{Ponzi}} Scheme, MMM, ended up taking in anywhere between 5 and 40 million Russians for the whopping sum of ten ''billion'' dollars. Not rubles--hard, American ''dollars'' (and now - 2011 - [[OnlyMostlyDead it is back!]]). All of this contributes to it being a CrapsackWorld and accounts for why Russians writing about this tend to AccentuateTheNegative and adhere to the far Cynical end of SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.

Some political pundits like to compare the modern Russia to the last years of TsaristRussia. Like Tsarist (Imperial) Russia, modern Russia has an economy dependant on selling raw natural resources. Like in Imperial Russia, most industries are owned by foreign {{Mega Corp}}s or are government monopolies, the rest are under the control of the current president's pet oligarchs. Putin, like Alexander III, reversed many liberal reforms of the previous reign, and Medvedev even looks like Nicholas II. Like in Imperial Russia, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing alarmingly fast. The pogroms (race riots) are back in full swing, although nowadays they target Caucasians (people from Caucasus, not generic whites) and Central Asians rather then Jews. The army is pretty much at the same redshirt status, the police is the same authoritarian riot-stamping force of mooks, the parliament is the same rubber-stamp body and is even named the same (State Duma) as the Tsarist parliament, the radical opposition is slowly but stably growing. And, like Imperial Russia, it is confronted with a MortonsFork of external politics: ally itself with [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire an old superpower that rules the seas]] [[EagleLand and which was the enemy number one for a long time]], or [[ImperialGermany a new, rapidly developing land-based]] [[{{China}} industrial powerhouse]]? What will be next? [[WorldWarThree Second]] [[WorldWarOne Imperialistic War]]? [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Second]] [[RedOctober Civil War?]]

Is it really crypto-Tsarist, or crypto-Soviet - since, you know, you cannot be both at a time? It is a complicated question. The government heavily favors the neo-Tsarist ideas, but among the Russian people itself there is a large percentage of Sovietophile recusants (not really Communists or Marxists, they do not understand these paradigms fully, but want the just good old times to be back). This leads to another Morton's fork: pandering to those recusants and re-introducing Soviet policies is a boon in terms of electoral ratings - but this will alienate the ruling elites who dream of becoming bona fide [[FeudalOverlord feudal overlords]], not to mention the oligarchs, and will, most likely, result in a coup. Pandering to the elites and re-introducing Imperial age policies, on the other hand, will alienate the grass-roots Sovietophiles and will result in protests, which will be much more vehement than the middle-class revolts of 2011. The only thing these camps can agree upon is that liberal pro-Westernists should be given the boot and Russia should be de-Americanized, and this is exactly what's happening: slowly, maneuvering to and fro to this side and the other one and trying to keep the [[RedOctober Civil War]] from reigniting.

[[AC:{{Anime and Manga}}]]

[[AC:{{Comics}}]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:{{Live-Action TV}}]]

[[AC:{{Tabletop Games}}]]

[[AC:{{Video Games}}]]

->“"Soviet Union? I thought you guys broke up?"

Russia now has a problem with TheMafiya, general corruption and a lack of money, although these three are being somewhat dealt with. Following the general decay of... everything during the nineties, the government has been hard-pressed to select which sectors were in the most urgent need of restructuring/financing, permitted by the improving conditions. The military industry, hydrocarbons extraction, and other "marketable" goods came first, and this along with sudden exposure of the economy to the laws of demand left the notoriously bloated and inefficient heavy industries inherited from the USSR to [[NoBudget fend for themselves]]. These either adapted to the situation by scraping up investments and selling abroad, or were merged into large state-owned conglomerates. But annual budgets are not limitless and other sectors were also set aside, resulting in crumbling public infrastructure (education was mostly unaffected, thankfully), under-employment, and the problems of the USSR's frankly shoddy environmental record. Chechnya and terrorism are a rather a big issue as well. The far right is another large problem, as fascist gangs attack anyone who doesn't look right on the street. Also, there are people with a college education and war veterans literally out on the streets, [[VodkaDrunkenski more alcoholism than ever before]], and a much-bewailed demographic crisis. Finally, Russians, unused to capitalism after 75 years of being CommieLand, manage to get suckered into all manner of scams; one particularly notorious {{Ponzi}} Scheme, MMM, ended up taking in anywhere between 5 and 40 million Russians for the whopping sum of ten ''billion'' dollars. Not rubles--hard, American ''dollars'' (and now - 2011 - [[OnlyMostlyDead it is back!]]). All of this contributes to it being a CrapsackWorld and accounts for why Russians writing about this tend to AccentuateTheNegative and adhere to the far Cynical end of IdealismVsCynicism.

Speech is a lot freer than it was, and private business not only exists, but ''thrives''. Competition between private companies can be intense and cutthroat. ''Literally'' cutthroat. Which is why private security is one of the most thriving industries. [[UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin Putin]] and Medvedev are seemingly popular, but often quite shady. They casually exchange [[WhyDoYouKeepChangingJobs presidency and prime-ministering]].

* The main setting for ''[[Literature/VampireAcademy Blood Promise]]''. Rose wanders in post-Soviet Russian cities like Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk.

* The low-budget {{Dystopia}}n sci-fi film ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124349/ The Syndicate]]'', directed by Tibor Takács and starring Rutger Hauer (!). It is actually set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, but its predictions and overall mood are very much based on the Russian Nineties.

* JohnWells has this in the Silent Man. It's only one chapter, but what Wells is so sickened that, if the choices were Afghan backwater or Moscow nightclub, he'll pick the first.
* While the futuristic Empire in ''NikolaiDante'' bears many trappings of its Tsarist inspiration, many of its traditions can be traced back to the hardships of post-Soviet Russia, with the [[DeadlyDecadentCourt nobility]] themselves largely descended from the Mafiya.

* ''AgeOfAquarius'' is a TabletopRPG made in The New Russia, for The New Russia and about The New Russia... [[RecycledInSPACE with MAAAGIC!!!]]

* ''[[VideoGame/TwentyTwentySeven 2027]]'' has a good chunk of the game set in the Russian ''Con''federation, which is shown to be little more than a crime-ridden police state.

** ''{{Brother}}'', his most famous movie is a parly crime drama, partly action movie about gun-toting AntiHero living and fighting in crime-ridden CityNoir of Saint-Petersburg.
** The sequel, ''Brother 2'' was much better recieved publically '''AND''' much worse critically.

** ''Dead Man's Bluff'', a very gory splatter-comedy about incredibly dumb ThoseTwoBadGuys hunting a MacGuffin for their mob boss(played by no one other than NikitaMikhalkov), killing loads of people in process, often for very dumb reasons.

* ''[[Film/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Supremacy]]''
* A common setting for DTV action films such as The Mechanik(Dolph Lundgren) and 6 Bullets(Jean-Claude Van Damme)

* A third of ''AlphaProtocol'' takes place in the New Russia, and Sergei Surkov is a New Russia businessman, his dossier noting that he's had a combination of the right brains and the right luck to do well for himself in the environment. It seems like this is something of a glossy sugar coating when you learn that he used to be part of the TheMafiya; as Russia is presented as having its fair share of organized crime problems, it wouldn't be a surprise to learn that he's lying about severing those ties.
* In ''CallOfDuty4'', Sergeant Kamarov says, "Welcome to the new Russia, Captain Price." In the next game, they invade America. Although it's more of a Soviet Russia and not a New Russia. Where they get the manpower and money to simultaneously invade ''every single major Western power'' is anyone's guess...

Some political pundits like to compare the modern Russia to the last years of TsaristRussia. Like Tsarist (Imperial) Russia, modern Russia has an economy dependant on selling raw natural resources. Like in Imperial Russia, most industries are owned by foreign {{Mega Corp}}s or are government monopolies, the rest are under the control of the current president's pet oligarchs. Putin, like Alexander III, reversed many liberal reforms of the previous reign, and Medvedev even looks like Nicholas II. Like in Imperial Russia, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing alarmingly fast. The pogroms (race riots) are back in full swing, although nowadays they target Caucasians (people from Caucasus, not generic whites) and Central Asians rather then Jews. The army is pretty much at the same redshirt status, the police is the same authoritarian riot-stamping force of mooks, the parliament is the same rubber-stamp body and is even named the same (State Duma) as the Tsarist parliament, the radical opposition is slowly but stably growing. And, like Imperial Russia, it is confronted with a MortonsFork of external politics: ally itself with [[TheBritishEmpire an old superpower that rules the seas]] [[EagleLand and which was the enemy number one for a long time]], or [[ImperialGermany a new, rapidly developing land-based]] [[{{China}} industrial powerhouse]]? What will be next? [[WorldWarThree Second]] [[WorldWarOne Imperialistic War]]? [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Second]] [[RedOctober Civil War?]]

Russia has a lot of problems to deal with. But you wouldn't know it from the way the fall of the USSR is usually portrayed. [[HappilyEverBefore If you cut the story short]] somewhere around late 1991, it looks like the whole StoryArc is over, the ColdWar has ended peacefully much to everyone's surprise, and the future looks bright for all involved. Flash forward two years and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the economy has been crippled by corrupt privatizations]], unemployment and poverty are running rampant, and the new, "democratic", [[VodkaDrunkenski constantly-intoxicated]] President deals with an unruly Parliament by sending in the tanks. Later, it gets worse.