Vice Governors and Limited Public Space Play Key Roles in Putin’s System, Morozov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 3 – Horizontal Russia posed ten “naïve” questions to Aleksandr Morozov, a Russian political scientist. Among the many interesting answers he gave, those concerning the role of vice governors in Russian federal subjects and the maintenance of a limited public space are especially noteworthy.

            Vice governors in Russia’s federal subjects play a variety of roles, he says. Among them are “people from the ranks of political technologists who try to solve problems using tools familiar to them and by means of connections in Moscow” (semnasem.org/articles/2025/12/03/desyat-naivnyh-voprosov-o-ritorike-kremlya).

            But, Morozov continues, “there are also people with roots within the security forces who rely on their acquaintances in that environment.” The local FSB directorate and representatives of the FSB’s Second Service, which monitors anti-government activity.” Each of these groups has its own interests and way of reporting.

            The political scientist says that “it is advantageous for representatives of the security forces in the regions to present the situation that suggest any protesters were being manipulated by subversive elements seeking to destabilize not just the region in question but also the country as a whole.”

            To that end, they begin to investigate the organizers in order to speaking figuratively find their connections with the United States. The civilian administration of the region as to take this into account because they must decide which is more advantageous – quietly suppressing the conflict or being rewarded for exposing it.”

            It is also the case, Morozov says, that the Kremlin has a compelling interest in maintaining a limited public space in which people can try out ideas. On the one hand, this allows Moscow to test which rhetorical schemes are working and which are not. And on the other, it helps clarify the difference between real opponents and those who differ only a little.

            “If your native fails or is strange,” Morovoz says, “you still remain in the game – you’re just moved aside a little; but if you express disloyalty, then you have problems. And that is why the Kremlin maintains the so-called public sphere. It isn’t the public sphere of democracy, but it exists” and helps the Putin regime control the situation.