ABSTRACT
As Darrell Slider argues, Putin's ‘continual attempts to “improve the efficiency” of the political system by eliminating autonomous elements have consequences: the end of democratization, federalism, the rule of law, free markets, and the development of an active, pluralist civil society.’ Vladimir Putin has ‘inherited’ constitutional federalism from his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Putin's first efforts after coming to power, back in 2000, were aimed at suppressing the effects of ‘Yeltsin's’ federalism and chaotic decentralization, namely, a significant reduction in the political autonomy of the regional executives and their influence on the decision-making process at the national level. Federal relations often appeared to be irrelevant in the Russian politics because Moscow preemptively suppressed the effects of federalism that were potentially dangerous for the non-democratic regime. While federalism in Russia was neither strong nor effective (in the sense usually invested in the concept of efficiency for democratic federations), it nevertheless remained relatively stable.
