Putin ‘Veto Player’ in Russian Political System, Gelman Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 6 – Vladimir Gelman, a St. Petersburg political scientist who has just released a new book on Russian politics, says that no one knows exactly how much power Vladimir Putin has but his role is perhaps best understood as “a veto player,” a political science term for someone whose approval is needed for any significant decision.

            In his second major interview about his new study – for a report on the first, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/01/russia-governed-not-at-level-of-eastern.html – Gelman says that not only is Putin’s approval required for such decisions  but that he can block or reverse a decision made by others (meduza.io/feature/2020/01/06/avtoritarnye-rezhimy-rushatsya-iz-za-vnutrennih-konfliktov-a-ne-iz-za-protestnyh-vystupleniy).

            It is “another matter” entirely, Gelman continues, to say which issues he keeps for himself and which ones he delegates to others.  Those are likely well-known to most of the senior people who report to him; but they may make mistakes – and if they do, they can be reversed. 

            “Judging from everything,” the St. Petersburg scholar says, “Putin personally runs foreign policy, at least as concerns relations with the United states or with Ukraine. But certainly even in this sphere there are many questions which Putin doesn’t deal with immediately but defers to Lavrov, the Security Council or someone else.”

            “Over time, these priorities change. That is not surprising as it is difficult to expect that the head of any state – and it isn’t important whether it is democratic or not preserves one and the same set of political priorities over the course of decades.”