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Is Russia Ungovernable? — On Bad Governance in Russia, with Prof. Vladimir Gel’man
This week, I had the great privilege of having Professor Vladimir Gel’man of the European University at St. Petersburg and University of Helsinki with me on my podcast, “Loosely Eastern Europe,” to discuss his latest book, The Politics of Bad Governance in Contemporary Russia (University of Michigan Press, 2022).
We first distinguish bad governance from good governance and Prof. Gel’man explains why we (wrongly) tend to think of Russia as ungovernable.
We look at why Putin decides to continue his kleptocratic ambitions despite clear signs of power decline. We then draw parallels and differences between Yeltsin and Putin; Ukraine and Russia; and analyze if figures like Navalny might replace the decaying stage at the Kremlin.
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
Links to our conversation:
On Spotify: “Is Russia Ungovernable?”
On SoundCloud: “Is Russia Ungovernable?”
The Briefest Background on Russia
There’s no need to give a background on Russian political affairs since they have been front and center for some time, especially for my readers.
