Business and State in Komi: Managing Common and Confl icting Interests

Author(s): Yury Shabaev
Editor(s): Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 8
Pages: 12-14
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2006

The rise of big business in post-Soviet Russia disrupted the mono-centric political systems that developed in Russia's regions after the collapse of Communism. In Komi, the 2001 gubernatorial and 2003 regional legislative elections marked the divide between the old system and the new. Since that turning point, however, big business and the bureaucracy have found a way to work together to defend their mutual interests. The adoption of a new electoral system in 2007, in which voters elect half the members of regional legislatures through party lists, will make it even easier for business leaders to gain political representation. Nevertheless, the success of big business has not filtered down to small business, which remains largely unrepresented in the political system.

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