Dress rehearsal for Russia's presidential election: Moscow tightens grip on regional governors and budgets
Journal: Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences)
Year: 2017

Fifteen Russian regions and annexed Sevastopol elected new governors on 10 September 2017. The process reveals the Kremlin's response to rising socio-economic tensions in Russia's regions: changing their leaders. A string of older regional bosses rooted within their local elites have been forced to make way for a younger generation of political managers over whom Moscow holds greater sway. The regions' financial independence has been curtailed again too. For the Kremlin, this round of voting rep