The COVID Biopolitics in Russia: Putin’s Sovereignty versus Regional Governmentality

The COVID Biopolitics in Russia: Putin’s Sovereignty versus Regional Governmentality

COVID-19

centre-region relations

governmentality

sovereignty

Russia

In this article, we discuss the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic as abiopolitical challenge that – along the lines of the contemporary academicdebate on biopower – may be approached through the concepts ofsovereignty and governmentality. Within this general framework, theauthors look at the challenges Russia faces due to the corona crisis fromthe viewpoint of domestic transformations within the ruling regime, mainlyfocusing on center – periphery relations as a core element of the powerstructure in Russia that demands a stronger emphasis on governmentality.We outline several forms of regions’ distancing from the federal center:digital empowerment, the resistance of the North, and the demand for"people’s governors". Our main conclusion is that the relative administrativeautonomy obtained by the regions reflects the ongoing process ofdecentralization of the Russian political system which will affect thestructural characteristics of Russian federalism in the future.

Makarychev, Andrey

Goes, Maria

Kuznetsova, Anna

Czech Journal of International Relations; Vol. 55 No. 4 (2020); 31-47

2788-2993

2788-2985

10.32422/mv.55.4

Institute of International Relations Prague

2020-12-01

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0

application/pdf

eng

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Research Articles