Putin’s Mobilization Decree Boosts Powers of Regional Heads, Creating Danger Russia will Become a Country of Principaliites, Kucher Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 10 – Putin’s mobilization decree gives regional heads so much unrestricted power to solve problems on their own territories and thus keep them quiet that it puts Russia at risk of being a country of feudal principalities, something that seemed improbable only a short time ago, Stanislav Kucher says.

           On the one hand, the Russian analyst says, this decree is yet another way for Putin to “distance himself from what is happening by shifting responsibility for everything onto the governors.” But on the other, it is a kind of bomb that will destroy what is left of stability in the country (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=6350E82B7C188&section_id=50A6C962A3D7C).

              Under this arrangement, the temptation many governors feel to “be like Kadyrov” has now been officially sanctioned; and many of them are likely to take advantage of it, as long as they stay within the general rules the Kremlin has established. That is an example of how the pursuit of stability produces just its opposite.

               “We have become accustomed to the fact that the wildest scenarios which once seemed impossible are becoming a reality thanks to the ‘wise’ policy of the Kremlin,” Kucher says. Transforming the governors into a group where it is “every many for himself” is one of those and no longer seems so unlikely.

               The Kremlin seems to recognize that what it is doing in this area carries with it precisely those risks, he argues, given that it is “frantically trying to create a system of emergency management and not only of the economy.” But it isn’t clear whether that will solve this problem or only make it worse.