НЕЛИБЕРАЛЬНОЕ МИРОТВОРЧЕСТВО И РЕГИОНАЛЬНАЯ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКАЯ ДИНАМИКА В ПОСТСОВЕТСКОЙ РОССИИ

Abstract

Over the post-Soviet period, the North Caucasus has been in the focus of Russian peacebuilding practices. Analysing the developments in Kabardino-Balkaria, we demonstrated the causal relationship between stabilisation by the federal centre and regional political dynamics. We used the framework drawn from conflict studies to interpret the strategies implemented by the national government and political settlement analysis to describe the dominant political settlements that emerged under the successive heads of the republic. The first political settlement was a result of institutional arrangement within a broad elite coalition with the late-Soviet nomenklatura in its foundation. Indirect rule by Moscow amounted to transfers of budget subventions in exchange for the provision of relative stability in the region. In the early 2000s, this political settlement failed to effectively respond to internal political problems; amidst federal recentralisation, the new political settlement was established in the republic. It was marked by reduced inclusivity of elites and greater dependence on the federal centre. This political settlement lacked success in tackling complications of elite cleavages and religious violence. In 2013, Moscow replaced the republican governor and constructed a new institutional arrangement with larger subservience to federal elites and substantial attention to security matters. Thus, peacebuilding practices implemented by the centre sought to stabilise the situation in the region; it resulted in a successful tightening of vertical elite control but at the cost of reducing the inclusiveness of the political system within Kabardino-Balkaria.