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ABSTRACT
This article aims to explain the sources of territorial resilience in Russia. It demonstrates that the basis of territorial resilience is the “power vertical,” i.e. the current model of center–regional relations. This model ensures political centralization and, consequently, political uniformity. The model is supported by several formalized institutions, including the selection of governors, the guidance and monitoring of governors by the presidential administration, and the interactions of governors with the United Russia party leadership. In addition, regional governors are included in patronage networks organized around the highest state officials and “state oligarchs.” This additional informal subsystem provides center–regional relations with a flexibility that is important for maintaining resilience.
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Correction Statement
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Notes
3. Subsequently, these criteria have been refined several times.
21. Back in October 2010, in an interview with Newsweek magazine, given in his own heavily fortified residence in Gudermes, Kadyrov explained that he considered Putin his idol (https://www.vedomosti.ru/opinion/articles/2010/10/26/putin_moj_idol).
22. https://www.dw.com/ru/elena-milashina-kadyrovu-dan-kart-blansh-v-otnoshenii-chechencev/a-60668881
29. The latter are the cases discussed in the previous section – of Moscow headed by Sergei Sobyanin and the Chechen Republic headed by Ramzan Kadyrov.
32. Tatiana Stanovaya defines state oligarchs as “individuals who assumed control over large state assets in the 2000s as Putin consolidated power. They helped him rebuild Russia’s ‘power vertical’ and fight Yeltsin-era oligarchs. In the end, they became oligarchs themselves, albeit ones operating in partnership with the Russian state” (Stanovaya Citation2020, 7).
38. Furgal subsequently received a 22-year sentence in a high-security penal colony, the longest sentence received in Russia by a former regional governor (https://www.vedomosti.ru/society/articles/2023/02/13/962664-naznachennii-furgalu-srok-stal-rekordnim).
39. Everyone knows that judo is Vladimir Putin‘s first love (https://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/584fcaa09a7947bc49e360d1).