Gulnaz Sharafutdinova

The Pussy Riot affair and Putin's démarche from sovereign democracy to sovereign morality

This essay brings attention to the recent discursive turn in Russian politics that is reflected in the Kremlins turn to issues of traditional values and morality. Expressed in Russias domestic and foreign policies, this new “morality politics” is dated by the Pussy Riot trial in 2012 that the Kremlin used to advance its new discursive frame in the public sphere. Although not entirely new in its orientation, this new stage of “morality politics” differs from the earlier policy initiatives in its intensity, scope and political significance for the regime. The moralizing stance taken by the regime is accompanied by a divide and rule political tactic, whereby the establishment has tried to marginalize the protesters from the rest of the Russian public that the regime is attempting to reconsolidate based on traditional, conservative values. The essay interprets this recent morality turn as a strategy selected by the Kremlin to restore the regimes legitimacy that has been shaken by the protests of 2011–2012 and looks at the social and political consequences of the selected strategy.

Chechnya vs. Tatarstan: Understanding Ethnopolitics in Post-Communist Russia

Differences in leadership and social context prevented Tatarstan from becoming another Chechnya.

The politics of federal transfers in Putin’s Russia: regional competition, lobbying, and federal priorities

Abstract Most studies of intergovernmental financial flows in the Russian Federation focus on the federal center’s decision-making in determining the direction of these flows. Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that regional governments employ a variety of tools and strategies to compete over federal transfers. This study uses data on federal transfers during 2002–2012 to examine the factors associated with the politically sensitive share of such transfers occurring in this period. The key findings highlight the importance of administrative capacity and the value of attracting attention from, as well as cultivating relations with, federal officials for shaping decision-making on the distribution of federal transfers. We discuss some specific strategies used by more successful regional governments in attracting additional federal funds.

Governors and Governing Institutions: A Comparative Study of State-Business Relations in Russia's Regions

The paper uses the latest 2011 round of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey for the Russian Federation, which for the first time was designed to be representative of Russian regions. The paper takes a closer look at regional-level factors influencing the business environment in Russia and, more specifically, conditions that favor the emergence of symbiotic relations between regional authorities and regional businesses. Considering the argued significance of informal rules, norms, and agreements for the regional-level business environment in Russia, the paper uses proxy variables such as tenure and origin of regional governors to identify how these rules are being institutionalized. The findings reveal that, at least in case of Russia, juxtaposing the state and business actors as separate and opposed to each other may overstate the distinction between these two groups of actors and understate the fact that many localities in Russia have witnessed the emergence of mutually beneficial state-business arrangements. Defining whether these arrangements are beneficial or harmful to regional development is beyond the scope of this exploratory paper.

Elite Management in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes: A View from Bashkortostan and Tatarstan

Contributing to the literature on authoritarian elite management, this study explores a puzzle concerned with the elite evolution in Russia’s two ethnic republics, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. The variation of political legacies left by these two republics’ first presidents cannot be addressed using mainstream explanations that are usually considered principal for the Kremlin’s decisionmaking on gubernatorial cadres in Russia. Both Rakhimov and Shaimiev were very successful as political bosses who could effectively deliver electoral votes to the Kremlin and maintain relative social and economic stability within their republics. Yet, toward the end of their political careers, they faced different degrees of freedom in their negotiations with federal elites and had varying degrees of success in ensuring political and economic continuity within their republics. The study instead focuses on the legacies of republican privatization and the institutional dynamics of patronal presidentialism as two alternative explanations for their divergent political outcomes.

The Limits of the Matrix

As authoritarian leaders seek to protect their regimes from a populace yearning for greater democracy, they must use ideas to motivate the public and ensure their own legitimacy as well as strategies and mechanisms to sustain their power.

The Escape from Institution-Building in a Globalized World: Lessons from Russia

Strong institutions and accountable governments are imperative for any country’s long-term prosperity. Yet the development of such institutions has presented a continuous challenge for many countries around the world. Using Russia as a case, this study brings attention to the unexpected negative impact of global interdependence and shows that institutional arbitrage opportunities have enabled economic actors to solve for institutional weaknesses and constraints in the domestic realm by using foreign institutions, thereby limiting the emergence of a domestic rule of law regime. We argue that such opportunities lower the propensity of asset-holders, normally interested in strong institutions at home, to organize collective action to lobby for better institutions. We demonstrate the main ways through which Russia’s capital-owners make use of foreign legal and financial infrastructures such as capital flight, the use of foreign corporate structures, offshore financial centers, real estate markets, the round-tripping of foreign direct investment, and reliance on foreign law in contract-writing and foreign courts in dispute-resolution.

Governors Matter: A Comparative Study of State-Business Relations in Russia’s Regions

This study uses the latest 2011 round of Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey for the Russian Federation to take a closer look at regional-level factors influencing the business environment in Russia. Specifically, the study explores the role of regional administrations and variables of administrative continuity and governor origin in shaping regional business environment. The findings reveal that regional businesses in Russia are (1) acutely anxious about administrative transitions (as expressed in gubernatorial replacements) and favor administrative continuity, and (2) favor government officials that are locally embedded. The analysis suggests that many localities in Russia have witnessed the emergence of mutually beneficial state-business arrangements that are inimical to economic competition.

Book Review: The Politics of Protest in Hybrid Regimes: Managing Dissent in Post-Communist Russia

leak and getting back to half empty is a considerable achievement. Nevertheless, the criticisms of corruption and state predation are compelling, and better ways of doing things are not hard to imagine. The unanswerable question is whether these better ways were really achievable after the disaster of the 1990s. The comparisons with international corruption and governance data that Taylor uses to make his case are interesting but far from conclusive. It is hardly shocking that after the collapse of its empire and its social and economic systems and the disintegration of its state, Russia does worse on state quality and governance than other countries at its income level. The appropriate counterfactual is not how Russia compares with other countries but what else could have been done between 2000 and 2008, and like most counterfactuals, this one is fascinating, but elusive.

Informality and Corruption Perceptions in Russia’s Regions: Exploring the Effects of Gubernatorial Turnover in Patronal Regimes

This study uses the 2011 BEEPS survey for the Russian Federation to study factors influencing corruption perceptions in Russian regions. Specifically, the analysis relies on Henry Hale’s theory of patronal presidentialism to explore the effects of the institutional environment and, particularly, of regional political uncertainty, on the perceptions of economic actors embedded in it. The analysis reveals that political instability – when measured by the recent political turnover in the region and the presence of regional inter-elite conflicts – works to increase corruption perceptions among economic actors. These findings support earlier literature on the importance of informal rules and ‘insider entrepreneurship’ in Russia.