Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

Putin and the election of regional governors 107hands of Yeltsin allies, the liberal academics Gavriil Popov and AnatolySobchak, and they won election easily. Sobchak took credit for proposingthe idea to Yeltsin. 5 In the lengthy interview that Vladimir Putin gave inadvance of the 2000 presidential elections, he also took some of the credit forinitiating elections for regional executives in Russia. Putin reports that hesuccessfully convinced Leningrad city council members in 1991 to create thepost of mayor, thus opening the way for popular election to the post. 6The first election of a president of an ethnic republic within the Russianfederation took place at the same time in Tatarstan, without the approval ofthe Russian authorities. These elections were initially encouraged byGorbachev’s team, in part as a way of undermining the authority of theRussian president, Boris Yeltsin. 7 Ethnic republics tended to be dominatedby the communist-era nomenklatura, and they sought legitimacy throughelections that would buttress their influence vis-à-vis the new, reformistRussian leadership. Rather than risk a confrontation, Yeltsin allowed republicsthe right to elect presidents by popular vote. The Tatarstan precedentwas soon followed by other Russian republics, including Chechnya whichelected the separatist leader Djokhar Dudaev in October 1991.In other regions, regional chief executives—soon informally called ‘governors’—wereappointed by Yeltsin. For years after Russia became independent,Yeltsin resisted calls from regional elites to allow elections. His purposewas to hold on to an important source of political leverage in the regions, atleast temporarily. From the perspective of Yeltsin’s advisors, it was fearedthat regional elections would result in the victory of Yeltsin’s opponents.Retaining the power of appointment—and dismissal–would give Yeltsin atleast temporarily the ability to influence the most important question ofpolitical authority in the regions. Yeltsin began to sanction regional executiveelections on a case-by-case basis in 1993, while other regional leaders inBryansk, Chelyabinsk and Amur held elections without Moscow’s approval.Beginning in 1995–6 the election of governors became the standard practicefor all regions, and by October 1997 all regions had an elected executive.These elections reflected and corresponded in time with Yeltsin’s decliningpolitical authority, and they had the effect of speeding up the reduced controlof central authorities over the regions. The elections had a mixed impacton Yeltsin’s political power. On the one hand, elections meant that it becamealmost impossible for Yeltsin to remove a governor or republic presidentfrom office. On the other hand, Yeltsin reached an understanding with mostregional leaders that led them to support him in disputes at the nationallevel. In part they played this in their new status as members of the upperchamber of the national parliament, the Federation Council. 8 With theobvious exception of Chechnya, the deals made with the non-Russian ethnicrepublics precluded efforts to break away from the Russian federation.Republics generally had more autonomy that other regions; in other words,the emerging Russian federal system was asymmetrical. Treaties were concludedon a case-by-case basis that gave regions such as Tatarstan and