The real power structure change came more because of the internal politics and economics with the rise of the "Oligarchs"- the power behind the power so to speak. Brezhinski (sp), the vice president under Yeltsin, had been running things clear back to Brezhnev in a larger and larger fashion, and opening up to foreign markets became part of thier personal fortune, and if you watch the struggle with Putin right now, you can see some of the power struggles that go on.

b. 1952

KGB operative, born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). A member of the Komsomol, he entered Leningrad State University's law department in 1970. Before graduating in 1975, he was already recruited into the KGB. Putin spent the next five years with the KGB in Leningrad, mainly spying on foreign visitors. In the early 1980's, he was summoned to Moscow for training as an elite foreign intelligence officer, and was assigned to Dresden, East Germany in 1985. From 1985 to 1990, he recruited professional Westerners and East Germans to steal Western technology and NATO secrets. In 1987, he was awarded the Bronze Medal by the East German Stasi security service. In 1989/90, he moved back to Leningrad to work as assistant to the rector of the university, dealing with "international relations." This was a cover for his continued KGB duties, recruiting or spying on students. In 1991, he supposedly quit the KGB, at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, to work as aide to Leningrad mayor, and one his old law professors, Anatoliy Sobchak. In the early days of reform, Putin headed a committee to woo overseas companies to the re-named St. Petersburg. Putin's other roles in the city administration remain unclear. After Sobchak was defeated in 1996, Putin left for Moscow, where he was appointed "Deputy Head of the Management Department in the Presidential Administration." Over the next two years, he was rapidly promoted through various levels of the Russian government, and in August 1998, he was appointed the Director of the FSB, the domestic intelligence branch of the continuing KGB. In March 1999, he was named the "Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation." According to Spanish Intelligence, he made five secret illegal visits to Boris Berezovsky's villa in the first six months of 1999. In August 1999, he became "prime minister" and was named as Yeltsin's successor in the 2000 "presidential elections". In September 1999, a series of bombings ripped through Moscow, killing hundreds of civilians. [The bombs were planted by the KGB to justify a military response in Chechenia. This was deliberately timed to coincide with the upcoming elections.] Putin immediately blamed the Chechen rebels, and he ordered a major air and ground assault on rebel forces in Chechenia and Dagestan. By December, his popularity was at an all-time high after blanket media coverage of Russia's military victories in Chechenia. On 19 December, his newly-formed Unity Bloc won the largest number of seats in the State Duma "elections". On 31 December, Boris Yeltsin steps down and Putin becomes "acting president". On 25 January 2000, the CIS "heads of state" endorsed Putin's "presidential" candidacy. After a constant stream of sycophantic media propaganda, he was "elected" in the first round on 26 March 2000, with 53% of the vote (allegedly!).

"Among the Family members are his daughter Tatyana Dyachenko, along with oil tycoon Boris Berezovski, Roman Abramovich, Kremlin Chief of Staff Alexandr Voloshin, presidential ghost writer Valentin Yumashev, and others. These individuals are secure only as long as Yeltsin is alive and in office. A compelling inducement for them to use whatever means to stay in power. They also don’t wish to lose title to their opulent dachas in the Russian countryside and elsewhere.

This explains their animosity toward such possible candidates as Luzhkov, Primakov, Zuganov, Yavlinski, and others, who, if elected, would not guarantee legal immunity to the Family. Using secret special-service files from the Family-controlled FSB (successor to the KGB) they are trying to destroy opposition candidates. As the elections approach they will, no doubt, use this material even more aggressively to attack them through the government-controlled media."

I really do think that the collapse of the USSR and the introduction of democracy was a good thing - particularly in the satellite states of Eastern Europe, most of which have moved so far so fast the they are now knocking on the door of the EU.

Thomas was dead on from my research. Part of the reason was the changing of the rules to allow the moving of thier capital outside of the nation, which would have been impossible, or at a great loss, prior to the "collapse"-

The early pre-dawn hours of August 19, 1991 saw unusual traffic on Moscow's upscale Kutuzovsky Prospekt, home in those days to the nomenklatura owners of the U.S.S.R. Instead of chauffeured automobiles, columns of tanks streamed past the Napoleon Victory Arch headed for the city center and the Russian parliament building called The White House. On television the movie ballet Swan Lake was playing. Special announcers on state radio were reading communiqués from the "Committee For the State of Emergency". The KGB had drawn up large arrest lists of political opponents and had assigned teams to follow these people and seize them on command. Paratroop regiments and the KGB Alpha Commando were brought up surrounding the White House. It was Perevot, the Russian word for 'coup'. Or so it seemed.
And then nothing. For three days the world watched transfixed on CNN, which was allowed to broadcast out of Russia despite internal censorship, as the forces of the Soviet state faced a drunk standing on top of a tank.
Instead of striking decisively at 0400 on August 19, the forces of 'Putschists' simply joined the audience. The KGB did not implement its extensive arrest plans. Gorbachev did not die of 'natural causes' or 'suicide'. The only real shooting event occurred spontaneously when a mob threw molotov cocktails at infantry transports and frightened conscripts fired back. We are told the KGB Alpha and Paratroops refused orders to assault after three days of the drama. Why they simply didn't seize the White House in the pre-dawn hours of August 19 has still not been credibly explained.
Then the "Committee For the State of Emergency" dissolved. Some of its participants turned up dead while others jetted to Gorbachev's seaside dacha (why not to China?) for reasons that are still inexplicable. The All Union Treaty went into effect and the U.S.S.R. dissolved on December 31, 1991. The 15 constituent republics became independent with 12 minus the Baltics forming the 'Commonwealth of Independent States'. The surviving putschists received light or no sentences and have all played more significant subsequent roles in Russian politics than Gorbachev himself.
The explanations given for the hesitancy of the 'Putschists', when combined with the subsequent results, have still not received the skeptical examination they deserve. Here were people steeped in the history of the Bolshevik coup of 1917. Beyond that many of these men had been direct participants in the 1968 suppression of the 'Prague Spring' and the 1980 coup in Kabul, Afghanistan. They certainly had both theoretical training and operational experience in conducting coups. Yet they choked.

The KGB never spied on it's population in the massive manner that Hoover did to the US population- rather, the KGB appeared to be a tool to commit a type a war against political rivals, sometime after stalin thier role was changed, and alliances created within for this oligarch or that.

There is a big conspiracy theory in Russia that Gorbachev was in on that whole deal, and many think he was given a huge amount of money to do the deed, by Boris Berezovsky.

The most interesting part of Russia for me when I was visiting was the LACK of propaganda during the cold war, which flew in the face of everything I had learned growing up. I poured over old newspapers and stories that my grandfather and mother in law had saved (they are a museum in thier own right IMO- they throw away nothing LOL)

The KGB never spied on it's population in the massive manner that Hoover did to the US population