Democracy and Governance in Russia
The Development Challenge:
Russia's history, cultural and demographic complexity, massive land area, and stage of development pose unique challenges and unprecedented opportunities for the U.S. foreign assistance program. The goal of USAID programs is to help Russia become a reliable and effective partner working on key transformational development, geo-strategic, and transnational issues of importance to both countries. USAID's program develops and strengthens policies, mechanisms, and legacy institutions to support that partnership. USAID's program develops and strengthens policies, mechanisms, and legacy institutions to support that partnership.
Russia's strategic importance is clear. It has 17,000 nuclear warheads and a large standing conventional military force. It has stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. It is the world's second largest producer of oil and natural gas and has vast timber, mineral, and petroleum resources. With almost a quarter of the world's forest acreage, it provides nearly a third of the planet's carbon dioxide absorption.
Because of Russia's strategic importance, there are a number of issues where cooperation will continue to be of critical interest to the United States for the foreseeable future. These range from concerns about Russia's own social and economic stability to global issues such as trafficking in persons, climate change, combating terrorism, and access to weapons of mass destruction. At the moment, Russia faces a growing health and social crisis. Increased infectious disease transmission and unhealthy lifestyles overburden an already-stretched health care system. In 2004, male life expectancy is 60 years, the same as that of Bangladesh. HIV/AIDS and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) infection rates are growing rapidly. The birth rate is one of the lowest in the world with 9.63 births per 1,000 people. If these trends continue, Russia's population could decline by one third in the next 45 years.
Poverty is rife. Despite recent dramatic petroleum-led economic growth, it is estimated that about 20% of Russia's population lives in poverty. Small and medium enterprises account for only 12% of the gross domestic product (GDP) compared to 50-70% in other European countries. Scarce job opportunities raise social challenges. Continuing internal migration and consequent co-location of disparate people and cultures coupled with large income disparities are introducing new strains into the social fabric. Democratic reforms have drastically slowed over the past several years as the government has moved to limit independent media and recentralize power.
(Excerpted from the 2006 Congressional Budget Justification for Russia)
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