Russia: 2008 in Review

The year 2008 proved to be a very turbulent one for Russia, both domestically and internationally. The year started of on a note of stability and assurance, as former President Vladimir Putin's hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, former CEO of Russian energy giant Gazprom, easily won presidential elections in March. The election was marked by its lack of any discernible competition from other Russian politicians, with the majority of the country determining that Medvedev's succession was a foregone conclusion. The election itself was a huge disappointment for numerous policy analysts worldwide who predicted that Putin would stay for a third term as President, either as the head of Russia or as head of the union between Russia and Belarus.

Following the election, the country was then witness to a remarkable political transformation as Putin became the Prime Minister in May - officially second in command of the country - leading the world to breathe a sigh of relief, so to speak, that he would still control the levers of power and continue his domestic and international agenda from prior years.

August is now regarded as the watershed moment in Russia's present and future approach to its "Near Abroad," states that used to make up the USSR. On August 7, Georgian forces shelled the positions in Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia (a strong pro-Russian region that broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s). Russian forces, already having a limited military presence in South Ossetia, responded with a full-scale invasion of the breakaway region and then Georgia proper. Russian military, backed by aircraft, tanks and armored vehicles, steamrolled over beleaguered Georgian forces and in days were mere miles away from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.