ABSTRACT
THE PUTIN SYSTEM IS BASED ON CONTROL AND THE ‘manual’ management of political processes. In part this was a response to what was perceived to be the ‘anarcho-democracy’ of the 1990s, but it was also an attempt to find a way of dealing with more immediate challenges of societal and political management. The regime devised a whole series of strategies for dealing with opposition, ranging from cooptation to coercion. The ideological framework was a distinctive form of neo-Soviet depoliticisation based on an inclusive ‘centrism’. This model of political management was challenged during the 2011-2012 electoral cycle by a mass protest movement and a degree of intra-elite political contestation. This was accompanied by the radicalisation of a traditionalist counter-movement accompanied by a revanchist spirit at the heart of Putin’s centrist coalition, which spawned a range of restrictive legislation in the Sixth Duma from 2012. This essay examines the classic mode of Putinite political management and the challenges
it has faced since Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012. Both the Putin system and its opponents have become locked into a type of politics in which they feed off each other, reducing the potential for a breakthrough into a genuinely pluralistic and competitive system. At the same time, the very diversity of the new era of contentious politics has generated political pluralism in society, while the multifaceted regime response has combined coercion with elements of decompression. Contestation has taken place both within and between the regime and oppositional forces, creating opportunities for crosscutting alliances and hostilities.
