Reshaping the Agenda
An agreement to establish the Eurasian Economic Union bringing Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan was signed with no obvious substantial progress achieved. Most new parts of the agreement either deal exclusively with institutional matters or address issues that are years ahead in the future making the treaty rather a symbolic gesture than a foreign policy breakthrough.
A new large scale natural gas deal with China demonstrates that Russia continues to diversify its economic partners to decrease its dependence on the Western consumers and to show that it is by no means in isolation in the global arena. At the same time, Russia’s Chinese policy is still less sophisticated and based on knowledge than its foreign policy in the West.
A new Ministry for the Development of North Caucasus was created to mark the tendency of establishment of new federal agencies responsible for regions with development challenges. The three currently existing ministries responsible for geographic areas will have to find a way of working together with regional authorities and other ministries and the process of power distribution will be likely causing conflicts.
With a universal election day coming on September 14, 2014 many regional governors chose to approach the President to resign and be appointed acting governors to run for re-election in September to use the current high level of support for the ruling elite as more uncertainty in the future is expected.
Over a quarter of Russians say that there is no political party that represents their interests and do not believe it will appear in the next 12 months. The same statement remains true for 16% to 30% of voters currently supporting one of the parties represented in the parliament.
Now read on...
Register to sample a report