ABSTRACT
This chapter examines political participation, that is, the possibilities for the Russians to influence the privatization legislation. While the examination of privatization legislation and nationality legislation has mainly dealt with questions concerning Russians’ participation in privatization, another field of investigation remains which largely concerns the consequences of privatization for the Russian population according to the legislation. Unemployment benefit could be paid to all permanent residents, and the major part of the Russians fell under that category. The official attitude of the government was that the Russians had and should have full social and economic guarantees. Thus on the one hand the law made it possible for the Russians to establish labour unions, and likewise all Russians could be members of labour unions, but on the other hand the law to a large extent prohibited the Russians from being leaders of the labour unions.
