Publication

This paper argues that reforms implemented by President Putin since 2000 have increasingly centralized power and finances in the Kremlin, contradicting the federal form of government in Russia. The author highlights the negative effects this has had on Russia's regions, turning them into passive supplicants of the central government’s support while limiting their capacity to implement regionally specific policies. She also discusses the possibility that changing domestic conditions may strengthen decentralization in the future, but warns that the exact course and ultimate form of this process are difficult to predict.