This course aims to make the students familiar with the dynamics and institutions of political order in post-Soviet Russia. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the attempts to construct a democratic order, the subsequent recentralization of power and the increasing geopolitical role of Russia makes it an important global and regional actor that requires closer academic attention. We will start with reviewing the collapse of the Soviet Union and the post-communist perspective in a comparative way. We then explore the main political narratives of post-Soviet leaders (Yeltsin and Putin) and the evolution and workings of political institutions, including constitutional and rule-of-law questions, parliament, the executive branch and hegemonic presidency, and federalism. The course then goes in depth into a series of topics at the intersection between state and society – parties, elections, and civil society. The course concludes with a prognosis for the future and reflections on what Russia’s troubled transition teaches us all.