A study of elite politics in Putin's Russia

• Main Authors: Lin, Tzu Heng, 林子恆
• Other Authors: Lin, Yung Fang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/77467522589585920090

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 俄羅斯研究所 === 97 === The single-natured “ideocratic elite” of the Soviet Union begins to differentiate into political and economic elite under the impact of Gorbachev’s reforms. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin’s elites jostled with each other for their interests and transformed into the “fragmented elite,” characterized by regional leaders, opposition parties and economic oligarchs. This occurred due to the malfunction of state institutions, disorder of government functions, destruction of central-peripheral relations and the regency by the President’s cronies during his illness in the second term. Later in Putin’s Russia, with the only “positive” legacy – “authoritarian presidential rule” that the new ruler inherits from his predecessor as well as his own personal ruling styles and high popularity, Putin achieves the approximate incorporation of Russian elites with the political reforms in his first term, including the delegation of Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoys as federal agents in the seven new federal districts, the weakening of regional elites by reforming the Federation Council, and the seizure of the State Duma with the party of power – “United Russia.” Under the atmosphere of the “consensual elite,” the “Petersburgers” – especially the so-called “siloviki” – constitute the main source of cadre recruitment in Putin’s Russia. The security-intelligence background and state governance tactics of these siloviki not only mold the façade of “militocracy” for Putin’s regime, but more or less contribute to the tendency of “sovietization” in post-communist Russia.