The significance of structural power resources in the Russian Bilateral treaty process 1994–1998

Abstract

Scholars have characterized the relationship between a state center and regions, especially in federal states, as an ongoing bargaining game. The central objective in this study is to demonstrate the importance of political, economic, geographic and cultural determinants, or structural resources, in center-region relations in the Russian Federation during the 1990s. Structural resources have provided regional leaders with structural power in the federal bargaining game. According to my findings, politically superior, wealthy, culturally distinct, geopolitically and geoeconomically important and peripherally located regions were favored in the bilateral treaty process between 1994 and 1998 and were given chance to conclude treaties at an early stage.