Russia has had a difficult life in recent years. External pressure has been wave after wave, and internal arrest has begun to be intensive. The war in Ukraine has dragged on for more than three years. From February 2022 to the present, Western sanctions have been increased layer by layer, freezing assets and restricting oil and gas exports, directly making the Russian economy breathless. GDP will fall by 2.1% in 2022 and will continue to shrink in 2023. Although it will rebound a little in 2024 and 2025, the growth rate is far lower than expected, inflation remains high, and the ruble exchange rate is swaying like a roller coaster.
The Putin administration, when it saw the situation was not right, turned its attention to the country, picking up the so-called inner ghosts as the top priority. The first goal was directed to the Yeltsin era, the legacy of the former president became the target.
The Yeltsin Center, originally approved by Putin in 2008 to commemorate the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin, was suddenly spotted by the Ministry of Justice in the summer of 2023 and suspected of being a foreign agent.
The Yeltsin era has always been a controversial topic in the eyes of the Russians. From 1991 to 1999, Yeltsin undertook radical reforms after he came to power, privatized state-owned enterprises, opened the market, but the result was an oligarchy rise, national assets concentrated in the hands of a few people, and the economy collapsed. In the mid-1990s, GDP fell by 40%, prices rose, wages went back to normal. The Levada Center poll showed that more than half of the Russians felt that day was worse than bad, and a third had been negatively assessed. Yeltsin himself also had a lot of problems, and in 1993 ordered the army to strike the parliament to resolve internal conflict, and in 1996 he was recruited for health and heart surgery several
After Yeltsin's death in 2007, his legacy became a political symbol. After Putin came to power, he strengthened central power, cracked down on oligarchs and restored order, but he also faced accusations of limited media freedom. The Yeltsin Center was originally approved by Putin in 2008 and is located in Yekaterinburg. It displays data on reforms in the 1990s and is supposed to be a place to commemorate the beginning of modern Russia. But now, it has become the object of cleanup.
On June 15, 2023, the Ministry of Justice officially launched an investigation into the Yeltsin Center on the grounds of suspicion of foreign agent activity and acceptance of overseas funding for cultural projects. The center responded that there was no reason to be labelled, but no use. On July 7, it was directly designated as a foreign agent. This was not an isolated event, and the Putin administration used this to reshape the narrative, to look at the Yeltsin era as a chaotic counterpart, and to stabilize the current situation. Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana Yumasheva was also involved in the dispute, and it was said that the center was distorted in history. Critics like film director Nikita Mikhalkov, it said manipulated history and undermined public awareness. There was also a national liberation movement organization
The internal cleaning not only targeted cultural institutions, but also extended to the military and intelligence fields. From 2022, a bunch of leakage cases exploded, and the Kremlin was unhappy. The military industry is in disaster areas, with several scientists on the high-speed missile project falling online. In June 2022, Anatoly Maslow was arrested, and in May 2024 sentenced to 14 years of treason. He was a physicist specializing in high-speed. In August 2022, another leading scientist was arrested on suspicion of transferring technology to foreign countries.
At the beginning of 2023, there were also experts involved in the missile project. In September 2024, Alexander Hippuruk was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and also to treason. At least 12 high-speed experts were accused of treason, mostly elderly, over the age of 60. Lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov said that these people worked internationally normally, but now became spies. The security team around Putin is also moving, and there are people fleeing the West, and the risk of intelligence leakage is greatly increased. In 2024, the State Duma passed a bill to amend the criminal law and expand the criminal responsibility of foreign agents.
On April 21, 2025, Putin signed a law to expand the criteria to include people involved in the collection of military information. On April 11, Andrei Kozyrev, Foreign Minister under Yeltsin, was appointed a foreign agent. He later criticized Putin and became an opponent. This set of actions has increased the list of foreign agents across the country to more than 100, affecting employment, speech, and entry and exit.
In 2022, the Foreign Agent Law expanded from media organizations to individuals, receiving foreign funding or influence is considered a threat. In May 2024, the new law deprived foreign agents of public office rights. In February 2025, the preparation to block foreign agent journalists' revenue channels came into force from March 1st. In April 2025, the law further eased the standards, indirectly supporting foreign positions was also hit. On September 25, 2025, the new law was further strengthened, against those who attracted others to collect military intelligence. The effect was obvious, the cold effect was full. In August 2025, the Yeltsin Center's senior level for social media transfer of anti-war content fines. The role of the National Defense Army has changed greatly, this anti-terrorist stabilization agency built in 2016 is now in charge of more internal security.
In January and February 2022, the National Guard moved to the border and Belarus to participate in the Ukraine operation. In March, the Chechen National Guard withdrew from Kiev, losing hundreds. In September 2025, it was announced to build tank units and strengthen military strength. Internal security tasks include counter-terrorism, gun control, and border assistance.
The external environment forced Russia to shift. On April 4, 2023, Finland officially joined NATO, and Russia's northern border was more than 1,300 kilometers directly facing the alliance. Russia responded by raising the armed forces of Mormansk and Karelia, tank missiles shipped on the front. Putin emphasized defense and internal consolidation as a focus. On May 21, 2025, Putin inspected the Kursk front, helicopters were attacked by drones from Ukraine, and pilots were urgently avoided. The media said that intelligence could be leaked, and Putin returned to Moscow after rigorous inspection. On August 24, the Ukrainian drone hit the Kursk nuclear power plant, Russia blamed each other. Geographic changes allowed Russia to turn deeper into its internal defense strategy.
Economic pressure intensifies and purges. After Western sanctions, oil and gas revenue fell, the price cap took effect in December 2022, and Russia's budget deficit was 2.2%. In 2023 and 2024, GDP will grow by 4.1%, but driven by military spending, inflation will double exceed the central bank's 4% target. In the first half of 2025, inflation was high and investment was stagnant. Putin blamed the problem on the inside ghost, saying that economic poor is destruction and national instability is spreading wrong ideas. On July 8, 2025, intelligence showed that Putin launched an elite purge, and more than two dozen high-level officials died mysteriously since 2022. After the Wagner mutiny in June 2023, the purge accelerated, replacing elite veterans and loyal ministers. Nationalized hundreds of companies and opened cases from the 1990s. Putin's system spends a lot of money to buy loyalty and has high recruitment bonuses, but legitimacy is lost.
Russia's road is getting narrower and narrower. Short-term stability leads to brain drain, young experts run away, social vitality declines, and innovation is limited. The liquidation of Yeltsin's legacy is not only a political struggle, but also a reshaping of national identity. Under pressure, Russia chose closed control, and we will see when the storm will stop in the future. Putin remains in power, but at a big price. External sanctions and the war situation are in a stalemate, and internal arrests have become the norm. Russians recall the chaos of Yeltsin's era, and now the price of stability is the shrinking free space. Polls show that Yeltsin has 38% negative comments, 23% insensitive comments, and few positive comments. Putin used this card to stabilize the situation, but in the long run, the double squeeze of economy and geography made Russia really pushed into a corner.