Four Developments Changed Politics in Russia’s Regions in 2025, ‘Horizontal Russia’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 30 – In its year-end review, Horizontal Russia, a portal covers developments in the federal subjects of the Russian Federation beyond Moscow’s ring road – and gives particular attention to the oblasts and krays where ethnic Russians predominate, identifies four trends as transformative (semnasem.org/articles/2025/12/30/politika-v-2025-godu).

            First of all, the portal says, the Russian government has take away the rights of citizens to take part in politics at the local level, convinced that decision making “should be concentrated in districts and regions” that Moscow can more easily control. As a result, citizens now have much less say over their lives and there are fewer chances for the emergence of alternative leaders.

            Second, the Kremlin’s United Russia Party won more than 80 percent of the seats in local and regional legislatures, significantly improving its position from the earlier elections in 2020. Because that party is more loyal to the Kremlin than the population, governors can now ignore local demands far more easily.

            Third, Moscow has called for including more veterans of Putin’s war in Ukraine in positions of political authority. Twenty-two regions, about a quarter of the total, have formed commissions to ensure that happens. But this policy has angered many in the regions who say that apparently the Kremlin has decided that ordinary people aren’t qualified for such jobs.

            And fourth, neural networks – computer systems modeled on the human brain – have become part of politics in Russia’s regions, with ever more politicians using AI to show meetings that never happened or to present themselves in a good light and their opponents in a bad one. Many are now calling for a new Russian law to bring order to this development.