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Political Legitimacy and Traditional Values in Putin's Russia

Edited by Helge Blakkisrud and Pål Kolstø

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£24.99

About this book

The first book to discuss regime legitimation in contemporary Russia after the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine
  • Provides new insights into state–society relations in contemporary Russia
  • Draws on a large-scale survey of 1,500 respondents in a nationally representative sample, plus 600 respondents each in six regional surveys
  • Demonstrates how a conservative values-based rhetoric is being mobilised and implemented by the Putin regime.
  • Discusses the roles of political, meso-level and grassroot actors in values-based regime legitimation
  • Sheds new light on the turn to ‘traditional values’ in the legitimation of authoritarian regimes in Europe
Since Vladimir Putin’s return to the Russian presidency in 2012, protection and promotion of so-called ‘traditional values’ has played a prominent role in the Kremlin’s propaganda campaigns. From the large-scale demonstrations in 2011–2012 to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, conservative social values have been mobilised to justify the Kremlin’s policy choices. In the case of the invasion, for example, Putin argued that the allegedly ‘decadent’ western world was using Ukraine as a springboard to export its ‘pseudo-values’ into Russia. Drawing on a series of case studies spanning elite-level political rhetoric, the work of various ideological ‘values entrepreneurs’ such as the Russian Orthodox Church, and, not least, of grassroots sentiments, Political Legitimacy and Traditional Values in Putin's Russia explores authoritarian regime legitimation in today’s Russia.

Reviews

Recommended to anyone interested in the Russian internal political dynamics. It is an important multilayered cross-section of the state of Russian society on the eve of a bloody war, which includes analysis of some important subjects that relate to the war itself.
This book is a valuable contribution to existing academic research around the use of traditional values and conservatism by the Putin regime for ‘political legitimacy’. It includes data that challenge common perceptions about the success of the regime’s strategy.
Table of contents

Preface

Introduction: Values-based Legitimation in Putin’s Russia
Helge Blakkisrud and Pål Kolstø

1. Russian Popular Values under President Putin: A ‘Conservative Turn’ – or Anomie?
Guri Tyldum and Pål Kolstø

2. Traditional Values and Civic Activism in Russia
Anna A. Dekalchuk, Ivan S. Grigoriev and Regina Smyth

3. Values Entrepreneurship and Ideological Reaction: The Case of Konstantin Malofeev
Marlene Laruelle

4. ‘To Lay Down His Life for His Friends’: The Russian Orthodox Church in Search of a War Theory
Mikhail Suslov

5. The Moscow Patriarchate and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Towards a Critical Explanation
Bojidar Kolov

6. The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Legitimacy of Putin’s regime: A Biopolitical Perspective
Andrey Makarychev

7. The Path to ‘Healthy Conservativism’: Tracing Drivers and Legitimation in the Development of Putin’s new ‘ideology’
Tora Berge Naterstad and Helge Blakkisrud

8. Which Past is Usable for Putin’s Regime?: Analysis of Commemorative Speeches of the Russian Presidents (2000–22)
Olga Malinova

9. Has Social Conservative Rhetoric Boosted Putin’s Popularity? More Backfire than Benefit
Henry E. Hale

Appendix: Questionnaire, National sample, LegitRuss

About the contributors

Helge Blakkisrud

Helge Blakkisrud is Associate Professor of Russian Area Studies at the University of Oslo

Pål Kolstø

Pål Kolstø is Professor Emeritus of Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at the University of Oslo