By Shifting Responsibilities to Regions, Moscow Undermining Putin Vertical, Dukenbayev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 2 – After spending the first two decades centralizing power, Vladimir Putin in response to recent crises has shifted many responsibilities onto the leaders of Russia’s federal subjects, something that is gradually turning them from administrative executors into subjects who are forced to act independently,” Aska Dukenbayev says.

            Up to now, the Kazakh political analyst who now lives in the US says, “we are not talking about separatism or political autonomy but rather, in the context of a growing number of crises, ‘the federal center’ is increasingly unable to respond simultaneously and quickly to a wide range of problems” and the regions are responding (region.expert/vertical-crisis/).

            What is happening, Dukenbayev says, is that in response first to the covid pandemic and now more dramatically to recruitment for the war in Ukraine, “responsibility and practical management are increasingly shifting to the regional level, where the authorities are forced to act in direct contact with the population and local challenges.”

            As a result, he continues, “in these conditions, it is regional and local authorities that find themselves between the demands of the Moscow center and the rapidly changing situation on the ground, becoming a kind of political shock absorber between the Moscow leadership and the population.”

            Not surprisingly, “the political consequences of the military and economic crisis are beginning to appear. In some regions, politicians and public figures appear, which allow themselves more openly criticism of certain aspects of state policies and mechanisms of centralized decision-making.”

            The Putin system operates on the basis of “the assumption that regional elites should remain primarily loyal executors” of central policy; but “crises are gradually changing the very nature of their functioning,” with ever more problems having to be solved locally and regionally” and with leaders increasingly viewing themselves as participants in this process.

            Indeed, Dukenbayev concludes, “when a region is forced to constantly solve problems on its own, it gradually begins to view itself in a new way, thus creating a paradox in which a system that strengthened the power vertical for decades is creating opportunities for the emergence of new centers of decision making.”