Which composer wrote the music of Russia’s current national anthem, adopted in 2000?

Alexander Alexandrov wrote the music of Russia’s current national anthem, adopted in 2000.

The melody originated as the anthem of the Soviet Union. Alexandrov composed it, and the Soviet government adopted it in 1944. After the Soviet Union dissolved, Russia used “The Patriotic Song,” composed by Mikhail Glinka, as its anthem from 1990 to 2000.

Russia restored Alexandrov’s melody in 2000, while new lyrics by Sergey Mikhalkov were introduced. Mikhalkov had also co-written the lyrics of the Soviet anthem, making the modern anthem musically continuous with the Soviet period while using revised words.

A common mix-up is crediting Glinka because his music was used for Russia’s anthem immediately after the Soviet era. The current anthem’s melody is Alexandrov’s, not Glinka’s, and the present lyrics date from the restoration in 2000.