V. Informal Politics In Russia, as elsewhere, interest groups actively try to influence policy.
Interest groups are especially powerful because political parties are weak.
Government ministries themselves, rather than political parties, sometimes perform a mediating role among various interests. There are few legally recognized lobbying associations with a large membership in the society, such as the National Rifle Association in the United States or the American Association of Retired Persons. Instead, members of the elite, many of whom have economic and politics interests at stake, lobby other members of the elite. In the highly centralized Soviet system lobbying was concentrated in centralized and officially authorized groups representing functional interests. The military-industrial complex, for example, represented nine basic industries.