Suchergebnisse

Even before the economic crisis caused by Russia's full-scale attack against Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions, the Russian economy was plagued by a number of growing problems. As a result, Russia's economy has hardly grown for almost a decade, with an average annual growth rate of just 0.5% between 2013 and 2021. However, the Russian government does not have a strategy for addressing the fundamental economic challenges that are looming just over the horizon. There also seem to be no public debates about these challenges, whether in the policy circles around the government or among the wider public.

After a period of relative political liberalization under president Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's security services have again started to play a central role in Russian politics with Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency in 2012. In this issue of Russian Politics, we analyze three different aspects of this return of the siloviki: the way they think and see the world, how the relationship between governors and siloviki affects economic development at the regional level, and how the strengthening of the siloviki since 2012 compares to the strengthening of the Chinese internal security services, which took place during the same time. We identify a new assertiveness of Russia's siloviki, as well as a centralization of power around Vladimir Putin through the dismissal of other influential heavyweights within Russia's security services, and speculate what this might mean for Russia's short- to mid-term future.

Seit 2012 ist die Politik der russischen Regierung im Inneren sichtbar repressiver geworden und hat außen politisch zunehmend aggressive Züge angenommen. Auf den ersten Blick scheint diese Entwicklung ein Produkt erstarkter Sicherheits- und Verteidigungsapparate zu sein, der sogenannten Silowiki, die in dem Kampf zwischen den rivalisierenden Gruppen an der Spitze der russischen Politik letztlich die Oberhand gewonnen haben. Das ist allerdings weniger darauf zurückzuführen, dass die Silowiki die russische Politik unter ihre Kontrolle genommen hätten. Vielmehr hat sich Wladimir Putins Interpretation dessen, wie die Welt funktioniert, zunehmend der Weltsicht der Silowiki angeglichen, was die autoritäre Wende in der rus sischen Politik der letzten Jahre erklärt.