Carnegie Moscow Center
The series of United Russia interregional conferences are clearly part of a larger election campaign and will likely be used to help hasten early State Duma elections.
The dismissal of Moscow Mayor Luzhkov marks the end of a political era and may well be the last sharply competitive political struggle between rival camps under the ruling tandem.
The dismissal of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the surrounding public speculation provide a glimpse inside Russia’s political system, its organization, and the people who inhabit it.
The recent controversy surrounding Moscow’s Mayor Luzhkov underscores how the current leadership is unable to build a consensus or reach a compromise among the leading business groups and has dealt a heavy blow to the mayor's legitimacy.
While previous presidential envoys were typically former military officers, recent appointees, like the new envoy to the Siberian Federal District, are professional economists, demonstrating Moscow’s awareness of the need to develop regional economies.
Current economic, social and political conditions are more likely to push Russian voters toward opposition candidates than United Russia’s candidates, with potentially significant ramifications for the ruling party.
The Kremlin’s decision not to nominate Kaliningrad Governor Georgy Boos to serve a second term was a response to large scale popular demonstrations and the complaints of the opposition.
The inadequate response to Russia's forest fires illustrates Moscow’s inability to respond to large scale disasters and how Russia’s vertical power structure undermines the ability of local authorities to respond to crises.
While the Kremlin’s new ModernRussia web site is intended to provide a platform for news and feedback on investment opportunities in Russia, it is ultimately more about public relations than actually attracting investors.
The departure of governors like Bashkortostan President Rakhimov is the result of a Kremlin operation which is replacing a generation of heavyweights by lesser-known officials with no interest in public politics. The Kremlin’s candidate to replace Rakhimov as president is Rustem Khamitov, a former Bashkortostan minister and chief federal inspector who then left the republic.