Russian Politics Today Stability and Fragility

The dynamics of center–region relations in Russia established by Vladimir Putin over the past two decades are at the heart of both the strength and the fragility of Russia’s authoritarian regime today. This chapter provides a history of changing relations between the federal center, the Kremlin, and Russia’s diverse subnational territories and highlights a central tradeoff that characterizes this relationship. The federal government has to balance two competing imperatives in its relationship to the regions and decide between a higher level of political control on the one hand, and more responsiveness to local needs on the other. The chapter consists of four sections. The first section considers Soviet legacies and political events that characterized Russia’s transition from the Soviet Union. The second looks at Yeltsin’s presidency, which was characterized by empowerment of Russian subnational units and the promises of federalism and democracy, but also extreme weakness of the federal state and threats to Russian statehood. The third section focuses on recentralization dynamics that characterized center–region relations under Putin during his first two terms as a president. The final section considers increasing powers gained by the president in recent years vis-à-vis the regions against the background of persistent issues of regional governance that the regime has been unable to solve. The chapter demonstrates that centralization reforms both strengthened Putin’s regime by establishing a system of control over regional actors and failed to build in the flexibility and responsiveness needed to address local needs.