ABSTRACT
In this chapter we will examine the impact of Russia’s political style on the development of business-state relations within the regions and the subsequent influence of these dynamics on the evolution of centre-regional political dialogue. This discussion will examine the development of regional institutions and the degree of their autonomy (or otherwise) from the Kremlin and differing influence groups of national importance. The chapter will argue that Putin’s institutional reforms at the centre conducted during the initial stages of his presidency have had a significant effect on the redistribution of power within regional structures. The analysis will concentrate on the financial-political aspects of regional institutional development. It will be demonstrated that the centre’s attempts to change the rules of national political interaction by introducing a number of steps to dismantle the system of oligarchic monopolism at the federal centre immediately affected the regional establishment. The political system, under which representatives of large corporations had a serious influence on policy-making, migrated from the national arena into the provinces and significantly altered the influence of previously powerful regional leaders. By the end of Putin’s first term, these dynamics had resulted in the establishment of effective non-institutional relationships between big business and Russia’s regional authorities. The emergence of poorly controlled oligarchic structures at the subnational level prompted the centre to adopt a range of initiatives aimed at placing a safe and controllable distance between representative of nationwide enterprises and regional governors. With the exception of changes that took place in the regional electoral systems, such policies have been predominantly borrowed from well-functioning Western models. At the same time, we will argue that the political style and context within which such ideas have been implemented have subverted the initial intentions and led to the emergence of alternative, and at times more sophisticated, forms of relational informality.
