Russia’s Path to a New Regional Policy

In August 1990 Boris Yeltsin traveled to Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, to urge the local authorities to "take as much autonomy as you can swallow." Ten years later, newly elected President Vladimir Putin visited the same city during a festival and dunked his head into a bucket of fermented mare's milk as part of a local folk ritual. But he wasn't swallowing any of his predecessor's pro-autonomy rhetoric. Propelled into office by popular support for revival of the war against the separatist republic of Chechnya, Putin pledged from the start to bring the rest of the regions into line as well. Although a noticeable departure from Yeltsin's laissez-faire approach, Putin's intention to strengthen the center at the expense of the regions is hardly unprecedented. His views are consistent with those of most of the prime ministers who served under Yeltsin and of national political leaders across the spectrum. Will Putin's attempts at reforming center-regional relations succeed where theirs failed? Although it is too early to make any confident predictions, we can at least try to identify the factors that will influence the outcome of Putin's reforms. […]

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