Hello!

I'm Maxim Polyakov, a correspondent for the online magazine ‘7x7’.

Over the 24 years of his rule, Vladimir Putin has established a system where Russian regions strictly obey Moscow. While in the 1990s governors and mayors were independent and made decisions sometimes displeased by the President or the government, currently they are obliged to do whatever the presidential administration demands them to do, and those who disagree either resign, or end up in prison. In this newsletter, I will explore the process of constructing the 'power vertical' and discuss its consequences. 

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

The Chain of Events

• In this chapter, I will cover all instances of gubernatorial elections being established and abolished. This will help you understand how the governing system in the country changed.

• The first-ever elections of heads of Russian federal subjects took place on June 12, 1991, even before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The elections were conducted in Moscow and Leningrad (currently Saint Petersburg), two major cities considered as federal subjects, as well as in the Tatarstan region.

• Until 1996, elections were held only in several regions. Most governors were appointed by the President.

• In 1996, the Constitutional Court of Russia established that governors should be elected, not appointed, in all regions.

• In 2004, Vladimir Putin abolished gubernatorial elections amid the tragedy in Beslan, where 1100 individuals, mainly children and their parents, were held hostage in a school for several days. Experts agree that Putin used the attack as a pretext to implement changes to the political system.

• In 2012, President Dmitry Medvedev reinstated gubernatorial elections across the country under the pressure from thousands of Russians who took to the streets to express their discontent with the results of the State Duma elections of December 2011. Observers recorded numerous violations and falsifications that occurred during the elections.

• In 2013, the law on gubernatorial elections was amended for the last time to date. The regions were given the right to decide whether the governor should be chosen by all residents or by the members of the local parliament only. The parliamentary model was supported by four regions in the North Caucasus: Dagestan, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, and Karachay-Cherkessia, later joined by Kabardino-Balkaria and Adygea.

Building a ‘Power Vertical’

Putin began establishing the ‘power vertical’ soon after the beginning of his first presidential term. Initially, this seemed like an attempt to restore state capacities after the 1990s crisis. However, in the mid-2000s, the first features of the current political system emerged.

Stanislav Andreychuk, co-chair of the ‘Golos’ (‘The Voice’) movement, describes it this way: “The process of establishing the ‘power vertical’ was undulating, but it was bound to reach the lower governing levels at some point. The 2000s were devoted to taking control of regional authorities, and abolishing gubernatorial elections was a crucial point.”

After the mass protests of 2011-2012, the presidential administration was forced to re-establish gubernatorial elections. However, they devised and implemented mechanisms to prevent certain candidates from qualifying.

The main tool was the so-called ‘municipal filter.’ According to the law, candidates became eligible for elections only after collecting signatures from municipal deputies. Representatives of the ruling party, United Russia, rarely encountered problems, as most municipal deputies were fellow party members. Independent candidates, however, had complications due to refusals from municipal deputies, who often faced pressure from governors.

Nevertheless, even in these circumstances, independent candidates were able to win. In 2018, members of United Russia lost elections in four regions: Khabarovsk Krai, Primorsky Krai, the Republic of Khakassia, and Vladimir Oblast.

Varangian Governors

At the beginning of the 2010s, the presidential administration adopted a new strategy for controlling gubernatorial elections. They began deploying loyal politicians to Russian regions and providing them with administrative resources sufficient to secure victory. Such politicians were dubbed ‘Varangians.’ The term itself is normally used to characterize foreigners, probably of Scandinavian descent, who contributed to establishing the Russian state in the IX century.

“Modern Varangians are external managers, individuals who have no direct links with the territory they are working in. They are social climbers, and their primary goal is to spend a short time in the region without causing any trouble and jeopardizing their further career,” explains political scientist Alexander Kynev.

Kynev believes that having Varangian politicians in the region is not necessarily a bad thing. For example, they rarely attempt to exploit a region for personal enrichment. Their purpose is to climb the career ladder, so they try to avoid any incidents.

“The problem with the Varangians, however, is that they are not interested in the development of the regions,” adds Kynev. “Whenever complications arise, they only think about how to create a convenient report on the incident. They don’t care about what will happen to the region in 10 or 20 years because neither they nor their children will be living there.”

Varangians undergo preparation in the so-called School of Governors, supervised by the First Deputy Chief of Staff in Putin's administration, Sergey Kiriyenko. It is not quite clear why certain graduates become governors and others don’t; however, experts that '7x7' spoke to believe that interest lobbying is an important factor: representatives of industrial groups and major businesses need loyal individuals in power who would not interfere with their activities in regions.

Political scientist Alexander Kynev is sure that there is not a rigid scheme for appointing candidates to regions. “There are just general rules, like a list of characteristics that a successful candidate must have. It is desirable that they participate in Kremlin projects, have political experience, recommendations from colleagues, etc. The rest, including which region the candidate would go to, depends on a multitude of factors.”

In April 2023, media spread news of Russian authorities planning to open a School of Mayors to train municipal officials. By January 24, only 5 cities in Russia still had direct mayoral elections: Abakan, Khabarovsk, Yakutsk, Anadyr, and Ulan-Ude.

The Consequences

According to political scientists, the latest crucial milestone in solidifying the ‘power vertical’ was adopting the law on the principles of managing public authorities, which happened soon after the amendment of the Constitution. Now, federal authorities have the right to influence the forming of regional administrations, and appointment of key officials is handled by Moscow.

Previously, the Kremlin exerted financial pressure on governors: if they contradicted the presidential administration’s will, the region would receive less funding from the federal budget, and the residents would notice that the quality of their lives is decreasing. Now, the need for such financial leverage has diminished because there simply aren't governors in power who would act contrary to the Kremlin's wishes.

“Dependence from Moscow reduces regional politicians to mere executors of the capital’s interests. In the short term, we should expect the Moscow-centrism to become even stronger and the traditional politics to basically disappear. However, in the long run, this centralization will weaken, and full-fledged political processes will emerge again,” believes political strategist Mikhail Krasulin.

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