For years, the Kremlin diminished the role of regional governors. But the war and the president’s self-isolation from real problems have changed everything. Now the enforced publicity of regional leaders may serve to restore their genuine popularity and authority.
In the current political system, Prigozhin can only be against the elite so long as he is for Putin. It would take the slightest sign from the president for the Wagner boss to disappear.
In occupied Ukraine, upcoming elections highlight the Kremlin’s limited room for maneuver following its declared annexation of parts of Ukraine last year: a costly decision forcing it to pretend that everything is going according to plan.
The recent transfer of Andrei Rublev’s world-famous Trinity icon to the Russian Orthodox Church illustrates the Kremlin’s superstitions and desire to give its war against Ukraine a spiritual foundation.
In his recently published bestseller "The End of Regime," author and journalist Alexander Baunov analyzed the democratization of various autocratic systems. In this article for Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, he looks at German-Russian relations and asks what lessons from German history might be important in the future.
Building the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline from Russia to China is a rational decision that would have made sense even before the war, but the project will never be able to replace Russia’s decimated gas trade with Europe.
