The purpose of this course is to give students a thorough introduction to the various Russian domestic governance and foreign policy issues facing the Russian state and society in the wake of their transformation from totalitarian communist rule. The course provides a brief historical overview of both the late Tsarist and Soviet eras as context for understanding the depth, scale, and scope of the changes that have occurred in Russia over the last two decades. In addition to the historical context, the course puts the Russian transformation and present system into comparative perspective by presenting them from various theoretical and analytical approaches. Russia’s regime transformation from communist rule and the evolution of its political, constitutional, federative and economic systems, social problems, and foreign policy dilemmas under Yeltsin, Putin and Medvedev are treated both sui generis and in comparative perspective.