ABSTRACT
In the post-communist period the hypertrophy of Soviet power gave way to the atrophy of the Russian state. In every sphere the ability of government to impose its will on society, to extract adequate resources and to sustain the symbols of legitimate power weakened. Putin’s immediate and intense concern to revive the Russian state emerged directly from his own background as witness to the dissolution of the ideological structures that had sustained authority for so long and to the disintegration of the muscle power of government. The overriding theme of much of Putin’s writings and speeches, as we have seen, was the need to restore the ability of the state to act as an independent political force, no longer at the mercy of oligarchs, regional bosses or foreign interests. However, a newly energised executive authority, even if its aims were benign, entailed the danger of recreating the traditional system of mono-centric power.
