Twice in the winter of 1999-2000, citizens of the Russian Federation flocked to their neigbourhood voting stations and scratched their ballots in an atmosphere of uncertainty, rancor and fear. This book is a tale of these two elections - one for the 450-seat Duma, the other for president. Despite financial crisis, a national security emergency in Chechnya, and cabinet instability, Russian voters unexpectedly supported the status quo. The elected lawmakers were prepared to co-operate with executive branch, a gift that had eluded President Boris Yeltsin since he imposed a post-Soviet constitution by referendum in 1993. When Yeltsin retired six months in advance of schedule, the presidential mantle went to Vladimir Putin - a career KGB officer who fused new and old ways of doing politics. Putin was easily elected president in his own right. This book demonstrates key trends in an extinct superpower, a troubled country in whose stability, modernization and openness to the international community the West still has a huge stake.