ABSTRACT

In his state-of-the-union address on 8 July 2000, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin touched on several governance themes, including the need to strengthen central authority. He said that ‘an era is beginning in Russia where the authorities are gaining the moral right to demand that established state norms should be observed’ and that ‘strict observance of laws must become a need for all people in Russia by their own choice’. He pointed out that ‘competition for power’ between the centre and regional powers has been ‘destructive’, and that ‘we have to admit that [Russia] is not yet a full blown federal state’. Instead, according to Putin, Russians have ‘created a decentralized state’. He listed Russia’s ‘economic weakness’ as one of its most serious problems.