Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

PrefaceThe chapters in this volume describe and analyse how it was that the strugglefor supremacy between federal centre and regions, so much a feature ofthe previous decade, should, starting from 2000 have been so rapidlyresolved in favour of the Centre. However, although the Kremlin under Putindominates the political space of the Russian Federation to a degree believedimpossible by commentators in both Russia and the West even five yearsago, the degree of effective centralization should not be exaggerated. Whilstthe ability of regions to impose their will on federal policy, or to use theprospect for secession as a bargaining counter, has been largely eliminated (therecent agreement with Tatarstan notwithstanding, the capacity of the Centre toachieve its desired outcomes within regions remains weak), the appointmentrather than election of regional leaders does not resolve the Kremlin’s principalagentproblem, and administrative reform of regional and federal territorialbodies cannot by its nature bring quick results. Local government reform continuesto be a complex and controversial issue with the recentralizing agenda ofone group of policymakers at the Centre colliding with the sub-regionalempowerment agenda of another.Despite a major shift of power towards the Centre, the underlying questionof Russia’s regional structure still remains – how far it should abandonthe asymmetrical ethnic/territorial dual system dating from the Stalin periodand embark instead on the often advocated structure of a few large regionsdesigned to facilitate economic development and planning. The practical andpolitical problems facing the imposition of a single structure in place of, forexample, the existing patchwork of North Caucasian republics, would beoverwhelming. However, the announcement, in January, 2008, by theMinister of Regional Development, Dmitrii N. Kozak (whose FederalCommission in the years 2001–3 initiated many of the legal changes thatwere to consolidate the shift of power away from the regions) of the plan toestablish 7–10 economic regions, running parallel to the existing regionalgovernment structure, represents an attempt to circumvent the problem byseparating economic and political/administrative functions at the regionallevel. The evolution of regional policy in Russia is not therefore simply amatter of centralization or decentralization, but also involves a debate, at the