(The Cconversation) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party, United Russia, eked out a majority in the Moscow municipal legislature in elections on Sept. 8.
While Putin’s regime touted the outcome as a victory, the election posed a significant challenge to what is called Putinism, a system that emerged in Putin’s second term to reassert Kremlin control over Russian politics. It included the creation of a dominant party, United Russia, in 2001, and the centralization of political power in the Kremlin.
Putinism relies on the president’s popularity to ensure regime stability.
United Russia may have won, but the fact that the election was so close revealed the party’s weakness and challenged its absolute control over policy. As a scholar of Russian politics, I believe the result suggests a looming political crisis as Russia looks toward national elections in 2021 and 2024. […]
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