Putinism

This article is about the political ideology of Vladmir Putin. For the contemporary syncretic ideology of Russia, see Ruscism. For Putin's aphorisms or catch-phrases, see Putinisms.

Putin in a rally in Sevastopol before the 2018 Russian presidential election
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Vladimir Putin's signature

Putinism (Russian: путинизм, romanized: putinizm) is the social, political, and economic system of Russia formed during the political leadership of Vladimir Putin. It is characterized by the concentration of political and financial powers in the hands of "siloviks", current and former "people with shoulder marks", coming from a total of 22 governmental enforcement agencies, the majority of them being the Federal Security Service (FSB), Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Armed Forces of Russia, and National Guard of Russia.[1][2][3][4] According to Arnold Beichman, "Putinism in the 21st century has become as significant a watchword as Stalinism was in the 20th."[5]

The "Chekist takeover" of the Russian state and economic assets has been allegedly accomplished by a clique of Putin's close associates and friends[6] who gradually became a leading group of Russian oligarchs and who "seized control over the financial, media and administrative resources of the Russian state",[7] and restricted democratic freedoms and human rights. According to Julie Anderson, Russia has been transformed to an "FSB state".[8][9] Mass de-politicization has been described as an important element of Putinism's social course. Mass social involvement being discouraged, politics are reduced to "pure management" left to those who are in power, free from interference by the masses.[10] In foreign affairs, Putinism has been described as nationalist and neo-imperialist.[11]

Putinism was first used in the article by Andrey Piontkovsky published on 11 January 2000 in Sovetskaya Rossiya,[12] and placed on the Yabloko website on the same day. He characterized Putinism as "the highest and final stage of bandit capitalism in Russia, the stage where, as one half-forgotten classic said, the bourgeoisie throws the flag of the democratic freedoms and the human rights overboard; and also as a war, 'consolidation' of the nation on the ground of hatred against some ethnic group, attack on freedom of speech and information brainwashing, isolation from the outside world and further economic degradation".[13][14]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Krysha was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Russia: Putin May Go, But Can 'Putinism' Survive? Archived 23 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, By Brian Whitmore, RFE/RL, 29 August 2007.
  3. ^ The Perils of Putinism Archived 4 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, By Arnold Beichman, Washington Times, 11 February 2007.
  4. ^ Putinism On the March Archived 14 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine, by George F. Will, Washington Post, 30 November 2004.
  5. ^ Beichman, Arnold (14 February 2007). "Regression in Russia". politicalmavens.com. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2019..
  6. ^ The Essence of Putinism: The Strengthening of the Privatized State Archived 20 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine by Dmitri Glinski Vassiliev, Center for Strategic and International Studies, November 2000.
  7. ^ What is 'Putinism'? Archived 5 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, by Andranik Migranyan, Russia in Global affairs, 13 April 2004.
  8. ^ The Chekist Takeover of the Russian State, Anderson, Julie (2006), International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, 19:2, 237 – 288.
  9. ^ The HUMINT Offensive from Putin's Chekist State Archived 2 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine Anderson, Julie (2007), International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, 20:2, 258 – 316.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference RFE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^
  12. ^ Fedorov, Valeriy; Baskakova, Yuliya; Byzov, Leontiy; Chernozub, Oleg; Mamonov, Mikhail; Gavrilov, Igor; Vyadro, Mikhail (2018). ""Путинизм" как социальный феномен и его ракурсы" ["Putinism" as a social phenomenon and its aspects]. In Fedorov, Valeriy (ed.). Выборы на фоне Крыма: электоральный цикл 2016-2018 гг. и перспективы политического транзита [Elections against the backdrop of Crimea: election cycle 2016-2018 and perspectives of political transit] (in Russian). Moscow: ВЦИОМ. pp. 587–602. ISBN 9785041523244.
  13. ^ Piontkovsky, Andrey (11 January 2000). "Путинизм как высшая и заключительная стадия бандитского капитализма в России" [Putinism as highest and final stage of bandit capitalism in Russia]. Советская Россия [Sovetskaya Rossiya] (in Russian). No. 3. Moscow.
  14. ^ Piontkovsky, Andrey (11 January 2000). "Путинизм как высшая и заключительная стадия бандитского капитализма в России" (in Russian). Yabloko. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2021.