The Putin Succession and Its Implications for Russian Politics

Abstract

Has Putin strengthened the Russian state or merely reinforced a particular regime? Russia's condition and recent development are examined in the context of the succession struggles in post-Soviet Russia. The parallels between contemporary Russia and the model of the patrimonial service state in which the state is the tsar's patrimony and he can use it as he sees fit without being accountable to anyone, a concept founded on the notion of power as property and the idea that the king's royal domain is indistinct from the state, are explored with attention paid to intra-elite power struggles, institutional changes leading to the current succession, and the development of state corporations.

Informal Political Networks and Putin’s Foreign Policy: The Examples of Iran and Syria

“…10 Stephen Blank notes that while on the surface Putin's nationalizing actions appeared to consolidate state control over crucial industrial sectors, they actually deinstitutionalized the state, narrowing the concept of "state interests" to the survival of the current patronage regime. 11 A variety of scholars agree that these supposedly state-based networks are actually mechanisms for undermining state coordination and control. Nikolay Petrov describes the Russian state as a façade, and argues that the old state KGB network privatized itself from within.…”

Careful What You Say

“…The body is expected to have competency in both telecommunication and media policy -it has to address technical as well as content questions. The service possesses the power to suspend activities related to all types of communications, including the printed press, broadcasters and online media (Blank, 2008). That gives it the authority to revoke a license, take down online content or block the access to a website.…”