'Five Years of President Putin: An Assessment' - Foreign Policy Centre

Who Pulls the Strings in the Putin Administration? Top
Dr. Alex Pravda
It is widely accepted that Russia is run by a small number of people who are not democratically
elected. This poses the question of whether Russia is heading down the road to
authoritarianism. It is therefore necessary to examine (1) who in this small group pulls the
strings of power and (2) whether effective string-pulling impedes the formulation of good
policy.
There has been a marked shift between Putin’s first term in office and the beginning of his
second. In his first term, Putin cautiously dealt with the judiciary and the Duma; now he has
embarked on a consolidation of power. It seems to many observers that Putin believes that the
political system should be fashioned according to his beliefs and principles: Institutional
contest is messy, not to mention dangerous, and is entirely unsuitable for the modernisation of
Russia and its return to great power status.
It is difficult to know how much power actually lies at the centre of the Russian state and who
pulls the strings. The more power is concentrated the more opaque it becomes and
accordingly, there is less clarity now about who holds power than in the Yeltsin period.
Although the oligarchs have the resources to protest at the centralisation of power, the
investigation into Yukos and the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky has warned of the cost of
challenging Putin’s centralisation of power, thereby maintaining the modus vivendi.
Officials, aides, key ministers and much of the state bureaucracy share similar roots; most
either come form Putin’s home-town of St Petersburg, or have the required background in the
security services. Bureaucrats are chosen on the basis of reliability and loyalty, not who is best
for the job. The apparatus has now become self sustaining with decreasing competence and
much loyalty. This has subsequently led to poor analysis on foreign policy and domestic policy,
best illustrated by the popular protest at social benefit reforms last February.
Putin’s Presidency is weakening: authoritarian regimes are not very effective, but are good at
short-term damage limitation. This creates a climate of uncertainty, which allows Putin room
for manoeuvre on deciding policy. However, this approach undermines long term sustainability
because much needed reforms and policy initiatives that tackle social issues are not formulated
or implemented. Regardless of who pulls the strings, it seems the strings themselves are
becoming threadbare.
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