Invisibility of Wives of Top Russian Politicians Increasingly Sets Pattern for Wives of Governors, Mileshkina and Fetisov Say

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Apr. 7 – Because of the patriarchal nature of Russian society and because the wives of senior officials in Moscow seldom participate in public life, the wives of governors in the federal subjects generally avoid engaging in public action, reversing a trend in the opposite direction visible as recently as a decade ago, Yuliya Mileshkina and Dmitry Fetisov say.

    The two political scientists who specialize on regional issues say that when Dmitry Medvedev was president, his wife was more active in public and the wives of governors followed course; but now that the wives of senior officials at the center don’t act in public, wives of governors follow suit (club-rf.ru/opinions/3017 and club-rf.ru/detail/7650).

    Both suggest that this trend has been intensified as Russia’s governors have been reduced from independent
centers of power to ordinary officials who, in the view of most Russians, should behave with extreme modesty and not have members of their family act too publicly.

    These experts say that there are exceptions to this rule, but they aren’t numerous enough to constitute a trend. And they add that they don’t expect this to change anytime soon, although they indicate that gubernatorial wives who do take part in public life can make a major contribution.