“Nationalization of the Russian Elite” as a Political Project

Abstract

The article explores the process of “nationalisation of the Russian elite”. “Nationalization of the elite” is presented as a reorientation of assets, business practices, the production of meanings of the political and economic elite into the contour of the Russian fields of interaction. The author characterised the Russian political system as a “state of limited access”, where actors of the political and economic field compete for rent distribution. The turn from the legitimate offshore practices of the pre-sanctions period to the mobilisation version of the formation of elite consensus in the context of “new normality” is analysed. The author considered political protests of 2012 and sanctions against Russia in 2014–2019 as factors of the “nationalisation of the elite”. The author proved that the interests of the state-apparatus and the state-nation in the issue of “nationalisation of the elite” have points of contact. An analysis of the assets of the Russian business elite in comparison with the business elites of other countries shows their privatisation and rental nature. The amount of assets held outside the Russian jurisdiction indicates a lack of trust in the business elite towards the stability of the “rules of the game” in Russia. These factors legitimise the process of “nationalisation” in public space. Within the framework of the concept of the bundle of property rights by A. Honore and the concept of communication codes, the theoretical aspects of the nationalisation of the business elite and the political elite are analysed. Finally, the author points to the problem of the possibility of “nationalisation of the nation” as a continuation of the mobilisation scenario.