Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

Putin and the election of regional governors 109an outcome less likely. In the final analysis, though, the solution to regionalinstability that was more amenable to Putin and his advisers required circumscribingdemocracy, not expanding it.The decision to end gubernatorial electionsIn the debates surrounding the decision to rescind the popular election ofregional leaders three major arguments have been made in support of themeasure, the first two explicitly and the third—and perhaps critical one–behind the scenes.1. Weak federal control over the regions. The lesson taken from Beslanwas that there was a need to further strengthen the top-down control inthe executive, what in Russian is called the ‘vertical of power’ (vertical'vlasti). In fact, Putin had been dramatically reducing the power ofregional leaders since the beginning of his first term in office. 13While Beslan appears to have been used as a convenient excuse to dosomething that the Kremlin had long wanted to do for reasons unrelatedto that tragedy, there were events in Beslan that provided confirmationto some that a new policy was needed. Dmitry Rogozin, thenhead of the party Rodina, was present in Beslan on 3 September andwitnessed a confrontation between the then presidential representativein the Southern Federal District, Vladimir Yakovlev, 14 and NorthOssetian President Dzasokhov. According to Rogozin, the two mencould not reach agreement on ‘who would lead the parade’, in otherwords, on who would take charge at the command centre that wasresponsible for making operational decisions. 15 Yakovlev was the onlyrepresentative of the Kremlin present at the time, but Dzasokhovclaimed that it was he who had the ultimate authority to determinewhat was in the interests of the people of North Osetiya-Alaniya. Thepoor coordination of the response to the hostage-taking is widely consideredto be a major cause of the chaotic storming of the school andthe loss of the lives of over 300 hostages. 16By making all regional governors part of the president’s team throughthe power of appointment, governors would now be subject to greatercentral control and accountability. In a book that was written to justifythe Kremlin’s new policy, it was argued that in the aftermath of Beslanthe public demanded further centralization of decision making in order‘to oversee everything that was happening in the country and answer forit.’ 17 The incompatibility of this conception with Russian federalismshould have been apparent from the outset; the ultimate goal seems tobe a system that is ‘federalist in form, unitary in content’.2. Flawed elections. Elections in regions were not democratic, butincreasingly dominated by financial groups and/or criminals. As a result