1. Neoliberal Reforms 1991
   1. Influx of Western Culture & Media
      1. The Russian Empire was linked to Europe, but Soviet Union closed off
   2. Soviet Union
      1. The police can throw your camera in lakes at will
      2. KGB follows everyone
         1. listens to everyone
   3. Privatization of Economy & Natural Resources
   4. Market "Shock therapy"
      1. release of price and currency controls
      2. money loses value
      3. prices become astronomical
      4. Release of state subsidies
      5. Release of state tariffs and/or export controls
2. HIV/AIDS in Russian Domain: Links to G. of Heroin
   1. Fastest growing HIV/AIDS infections in the world
      1. 1 Million+ living with HIV and AIDS
      2. Brazil
      3. United States
      4. Russia
      5. India
   2. Study of HIV
      1. Causes of the epidemic
         1. collapse of soviet health care
         2. hospitals run by bribery
         3. declining health expectancy
            1. Soviet Union: 70ish
            2. Russian Fed: pre-1914 levels
         4. Life expectancy for Males in Soviet Union: 53
         5. Unemployment
         6. Depression
            1. disillusionment
         7. Poverty
      2. 70% of people with HIV in Russia
         1. Intravenous Drug users
         2. Male
         3. Young
      3. This is called a concentrated epidemic
         1. different from most HIV epidemics in the world
         2. Not majority based in heterosexual intercourse
   3. Infection rates doubled in 2001
      1. why?
         1. well, 2001 Afganistan war began
            1. Free Afganistan manufactored huge amounts of Heroin
            2. Opium growing restricted by the Taliban
            3. Kandahar stronghold of Opium growing
            4. Former Soviet Union nations have unpoliced borders
      2. Russia was involved in Afganistan in the 1980s
      3. Now, getting from Afganistan to Russia is easy peesy
      4. 2001
         1. Price of Heroin drops precipiticously
            1. Heroin use increases
            2. Drug users are heavily stigmatized
            3. Methadone is illegal
   4. FSB Surveillance Society
      1. the Russians are comfortable with constant FSB secret policing
      2. if you go to a needle exchange, they will put you on a list
3. Gazprom, Ukraine, and EU
   1. Gazprom
      1. State owned
      2. Created in 1989 from Ministry of Gas
      3. Boris Yeltsin created stock/voucher system
         1. instead of money?
         2. if you had money, you could control the vouchers
         3. meaning the oligarchs controlled everything
      4. largest natural gas exporter in the world
      5. gas supplier for post-soviet states and europe
      6. Vladimir Putin elected in 2000
         1. campaigned to regain state control of then only 38% of Gazprom
         2. 2006
            1. State controls 51% of Gazprom
   2. Ukraine
      1. 1990s
         1. Ukraine starts disputing Russian gas transport
            1. how gas is supplied
            2. price
      2. vital russian gas transport way
      3. Russians accuse Ukraine of stealing gas
         1. selling to Europe
      4. 2008
         1. Ukraine paid half of European price
         2. Gazprom hikes the rates only to Ukraine
      5. 2009
         1. Ukraine owed 2.4 bil to Gazprom
         2. Gazprom insists on the whole 2.4 or else
         3. middle of January, dangerous times to have cold homes
         4. 1/1/2009
            1. Gazprom shut down supplies to Ukraine itself
            2. European gas still flowing through
         5. 1/5/2009
            1. Putin orders Gazprom to stop shipping to the EU
         6. 1/18/2009
            1. Multi-lateral talks resume gas shipments
            2. Russia
            3. Ukraine
            4. European Union Mediator
         7. 1/20/2009
            1. Gas begins to flow again
   3. European Union
   4. The Russian Inferiority Compelx
      1. Putin's presidency was based on reasserting Russian dominance of their former Sphere of Influence