ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the impact of Putin's federal reforms on the representation of regional interests in national policymaking. Specific attention is devoted to moving beyond the strict vertical dimension to center-periphery relations by reviewing the formal institutional basis for regional input on federal policies provided by the reconstituted Federation Council and State Council. The chapter also analyzes three informal avenues of regional influence. It examines how regional interests leveraged new authority within these federal institutions to affect two specific policies in the nuclear energy sector: legislation allowing for the import of foreign-origin spent nuclear fuel; and reform of the electrical power industry and national electricity monopoly, Unified Energy Systems. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the "federal face" of nuclear regionalism for the shifting politics of nuclear energy reform in Russia. An important consequence of this burgeoning "federal face" of regional influence was the introduction of additional transparency into Russia's nuclear energy policymaking.
