Inside Russia: regime stability and the dynamics of public opinion

Sciences Po is honoured to welcome Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist specialising in the legislative process in modern Russia, parliamentarism and decision-making mechanisms in hybrid political regimes.

One of the most inspiring experts on the state of law, Ekaterina Schuman will address the key question that all Russia-aimed political analysis asks today: how far the Russian political system is able to carry on, and what are the factors and the limits of the regime's stability? The unprecedented challenges of war, economic sanctions, governance dysfunction and internal discontent have stretched to the utmost the powers and resources of a regime very much built upon imitation, pretence, make-believe and self-delusion. At the same time, we are dealing with a system that has managed to survive in varying circumstances for more than 20 years, under various degrees of stress, fluctuations of internal popularity and international conditions.

We will try to describe its strengths and weaknesses, its mechanisms of decision-making and decision-implementation, its balance of bureaucracy and informality, the "regular" and the "extraordinary", the role and functions of the president and the foundations of his legitimacy. Public opinion, the extent to which we can have an understanding of it in a non-free environment and the degree of its influence on the workings of the political system, also forms a part of this conundrum.

Possible scenarios of regime transformation, stagnation or disintegration will be discussed, taking into account its current and possible future challenges, the powers of fear and inertia, and the evolving mood of both the elites and broader social strata.

Currently a Fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin, Ekaterina Schulmann was an associate professor at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and a senior lecturer at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration From 2018 to 2019, she was a member of the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights. Previously, she worked as a civil servant in local administration, as a deputy’s assistant, political faction analyst and expert in the analytical department of the Russian Parliament (Duma) , and as legislative affairs director of a consulting company.