Russia had already established a directly elected presidency during the final year of Soviet rule. But it had also elected a new parliament, and it was not until the adoption of the 1993 Constitution, after parliamentary resistance had been violently suppressed, that it became what some called a ‘superpresidency’, with the government headed by the prime minister as its executive agency. Yeltsin was succeeded in 2000 by Vladimir Putin, and then Putin, after the end of his second four-year term, by Dmitri Medvedev, with Putin remaining as prime minister. Russians themselves called this new arrangement a ‘tandem’. It did not, all the same, appear to represent a real and enduring redistribution of authority, Putin continued to be seen as the dominant figure, and it was widely expected that he would return to the presidency in 2012, when Medvedev's first term expired. Whoever held the leading positions, this was clearly a political system dominated by a powerful executive. It was less clear that there were mechanisms that would help to ensure that this dominant power was not abused by those who exercised it, and perhaps in their own interests.