For Maura, Sáoirse and Mani, and in memoriam: Frank Robinson and Peter Frank
Copyright © Neil Robinson 2018
The right of Neil Robinson to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2018 by Polity Press
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ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-3136-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-3137-0 (pb)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Names: Robinson, Neil, 1964- author.
Title: Contemporary Russian politics : an introduction / Neil Robinson.
Description: 1 | Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017057445 (print) | LCCN 2018012665 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509525188 (Epub) | ISBN 9780745631363 (hardback) | ISBN 9780745631370 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Russia (Federation)--Politics and government--1991- | Post-communism--Russia (Federation) | BISAC: POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General.
Classification: LCC JN6695 (ebook) | LCC JN6695 .R62 2018 (print) | DDC 320.947--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017057445
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2.1 The modernization of Soviet society
2.2 Soviet economic performance, 1965–85
6.1 Factions in the Duma
6.2 Control over the legislative process
7.1 Federal districts and subject units of the Russian Federation, 2016
9.1 Duma election, December 1993
9.2 Duma election, December 1995
9.3 Presidential election, June–July 1996
9.4 Duma election, December 1999
9.5 Presidential election, March 2000
9.6 Duma election, December 2003
9.7 Presidential election, March 2004
9.8 Duma election, December 2007
9.9 Presidential election, March 2008
9.10 Duma election, December 2011
9.11 Presidential election, March 2012
9.12 Duma election, September 2016
10.1 Selected economic indicators, 1992–8
10.2 Selected economic indicators, 1999–2017
1.1 Russian governance indicators, 1996–2015
5.1 Government and Putin’s popularity indexes, 1999–2008
5.2 Approval ratings for the tandem and trust in Russia’s future, September 2008 – January 2012
5.3 Approval ratings for Putin, January 2012 – February 2017
10.1a Barriers to trade and investment (product market regulation indicator, 0–6) (data for various years 2008–10; Russia data for 2008)
10.1b Innovation in manufacturing sector (percentage of all manufacturing firms) (data for various years 2008–10; Russia data for 2008)
10.2 Economic dependency on oil
12.1 The neo-patrimonial space
12.2 Exits from the neo-patrimonial space
autonomous republics |
One of the three names for the large territorial units that made up the Union republics of the USSR and make up the Russian Federation. Now known as republics in Russia (see the entry ‘krai’ below). |
CIS |
Commonwealth of Independent States |
colour revolutions |
Protest movements that overthrew established rulers or their designated successors in Serbia (2000), Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004–5) and Kyrgyzstan (2005). The term comes from the names given the Georgian and Ukrainian revolutions, which were labelled ‘Rose’ and ‘Orange’, respectively. |
CPRF |
Communist Party of the Russian Federation |
CPSU |
Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
Duma |
The lower house of Russian parliament from 1993 |
EU |
European Union |
federal districts |
Eight administrative units established by Putin in 2000 as a new layer of regional administration |
glasnost’ |
‘Openness’: the media management policy adopted by Gorbachev |
krai, oblast’, okrug, republics |
The large territorial-administrative units that made up the Union republics of the USSR and now the names for Russia’s provinces (federal subjects). |
LDPR |
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia |
NGO |
Non-governmental organization |
perestroika |
‘Restructuring’: the collective name for reform policies launched in 1985–6 by Gorbachev. |
Politburo |
The permanent standing committee of the CPSU’s Central Committee, chaired by the general secretary (also known as the first secretary), and the highest decision-making body in the USSR. |
polpredy |
Presidential representatives, first appointed by Yeltsin to each of the constituent units of the Russian Federation in 1991, replaced by heads of the federal districts under Putin in 2000. |
RSFSR |
Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic |
Supreme Soviet |
The legislature of the USSR and Russia (until 1993) |
Union republic |
The fifteen main constituent parts of the USSR, named after their dominant ethnic group, each of which became an independent state in 1991. |
USSR |
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics |
As usual there are too many people to thank and not enough space in which to do it. My colleagues at the University of Limerick’s Department of Politics and Public Administration are owed thanks for putting up with my frequent lapses in attention to their needs while I have been diverted by this book and for the help that they have given me along the way. I have had a lot of advice about its content, both directly and indirectly, from other Russian and post-Soviet specialists. It is unfair to single people out since so many different conversations and e-mails have helped me towards its completion, but (and in no particular order) David White, Richard Sakwa, Cameron Ross, Vladimir Gel’man, Paul Chaisty, Sarah Milne, Stephen White, Rico Isaacs and Derek Hutcheson have all left a mark in some way. They have my thanks and apologies for not always heeding what they have tried to teach me. My thanks and apologies, too, to Louise Knight and Nekane Tanaka Galdos from Polity, who have been exemplary in their professionalism and diligence and saintly in their tolerance of my lack of either of those virtues.
The people who really keep my show on the road are family and friends. The ‘Cheetahs’, Stephen McNamara and Sinead Lee, Katie Shishani, Natália Ferracin and Rafa Rossignoli have provided help and support in so many ways that they have blurred the line between family and friends to a point where you wouldn’t know there was one. Maura, Sáoirse and Mani are the three pillars on which everything rests, as always, but it is great that they have been joined of late by Adam, Somjai and Pitcha. I need all of the familial support I can get.
p. 21: ‘Raise the Banner of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin’: Soviet propaganda poster from 1933: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marx,_Engels,_Lenin,_Stalin_(1933).jpg
p. 27: ‘Chimney smoke is the breath of Soviet Russia’: Soviet propaganda poster promoting industrial growth: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smoke_of_chimneys_is_the_breath_of_Soviet_Russia.jpg
p. 49: Gorbachev addressing the CPSU Central Committee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev#/media/File:RIAN_archive_850809_General_Secretary_of_the_CPSU_CC_M._Gorbachev_(close-up).jpg
p. 57: Boris Yeltsin rallying opposition to the August 1991 coup: Wikimedia Commons
p. 86: Putin meeting Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the owner of Yukos, in 2002; Khodorkovsky was arrested for economic crimes in 2003 and lost control of Yukos: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5398658
p. 89: Some of the victims of the Beslan school siege: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&profile=images&search=beslan+&fulltext=1&searchToken=92ibc0ib9f8y1y05wyqtyikql#/media/File:Beslan_foto_pogibshih.jpg
p. 98: Putin and Medvedev at the military parade marking the sixty-ninth anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sergey_Shoigu,_Vladimir_Putin,_Dmitry_Medvedev,_May_9,_2014.jpg
p. 114: The Duma building, Moscow: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&profile=images&search=Russian+Duma&fulltext=1&searchToken=55c4qpf7t7lkcv99g2tswbukw#/media/File:Russian_Duma_1.jpg
p. 123: Leader as action man: Putin submerges on board a mini-submarine to explore a shipwreck in the Black Sea: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50147
p. 136: Chechen fighters with a downed Russian helicopter, 1994: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&profile=images&search=Chechen+war&fulltext=1&searchToken=5qsv7xuzrxejd5guzdlfldg3t#/media/File:Evstafiev-helicopter-shot-down.jpg
p. 148: Alexei Navalny at a protest rally, Moscow, 2013: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexey_Navalny_at_Moscow_rally_2013-06-12_3.JPG
p. 155: CPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov and supporters in Red Square celebrate the 130th anniversary of Lenin’s birth: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&profile=images&search=CPRF&fulltext=1&searchToken=eyqvl8vqsr3z5yn4dw39t64sk#/media/File:RIAN_archive_783695_The_leader_of_the_CPRF_Gennady_Zyuganov_at_the_Red_Square.jpg
p. 162: A United Russia campaign poster for the 2007 Duma election: ‘Moscow votes for Putin!’: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17665177
p. 188: ‘I didn’t vote for these bastards’ (the United Russia logo adapted by Alexei Navalny to show the United Russia bear with a bag of swag), ‘I voted for some other bastards’ (logos of Yabloko, A Just Russia and the CPRF). ‘I demand a recount!’: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17665177
p. 191: The late Boris Nemtsov at the December 2011 For Fair elections rally: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59977710
p. 211: Putin’s tears in oil: graffiti in Perm satirizing Russia’s oil dependency: https://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/7180754004/in/photostream/
p. 212: ‘If Russia has oil, I’m shopping in Milan’: https://youtube/bnyBwNAdTu0
p. 224: Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bill_Clinton_and_Boris_Yeltsin_1994.jpg
p. 237: The EuroMaidan protest, Kiev, 2014: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33132150
p. 252: The cult of leadership: Putin, Lenin and Stalin impersonators outside Red Square: https://pixabay.com/en/putin-lenin-stalin-policy-1453504/
Map 1 The USSR and its republics
Map 2 The Russian Federation