Paradoxes of Putinism
Vladimir Putin's trademark since taking charge of Russia's government almost two decades ago has been stability. He has achieved much in terms of this master goal, including economic and demographic recovery. But development on the part of Russian society has been juxtaposed with growing rigidity and control-mindedness on the part of the state. The accumulation of economic, social, and foreign-policy problems in recent years naturally raises questions about the sustainability of the current regime. Paradoxically, Putin's personal popularity has not always been matched by confidence in his policies, although the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine gave that confidence a boost. Another paradox is that Russia bucks the global trend that seemingly links social and economic modernization to political democratization. The essays in this issue that follow will probe dimensions of this knot of puzzles.
From day one, the declared priority of Russia鈥檚 second president鈥搃t is no exaggeration to call it a sacred priority for him鈥搘as to engineer political and social stability. His chosen course reflected the instinctive embrace of control for control鈥檚 sake of a career silovik, the Russian catchword for an associate or veteran of the security and military services. But Vladimir Putin also took a more philosophical view. Disorder was not only inherently undesirable, he affirmed in the 鈥淢illennium Manifesto鈥 published in his name on the eve of his appointment as acting president on December 31, 1999, but was a stumbling block to normal life and development鈥揳nd nowhere more than in Russia, given its tumultuous history. Although Communism had its accomplishments, on the whole, in Putin鈥檚 estimation, it had proven a recipe for keeping the Soviet Union backward and out of the global mainstream. As the way out, Putin rejected the 鈥渟hakeups, cataclysms, and total makeovers鈥 that accompanied the Communists to power and defined Russia鈥檚 twentieth century. The twenty-first century demanded a forward-looking 鈥渟trategy for . . . revival and prosperity . . . based on all the positives created in the [world . . .