The Presidency After March 2012: Assessing The Options

Back in late April we outlined our view that Russia's president after the March 2012 election will be picked beforehand by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is widely tipped to return to the presidency after a four-year hiatus during which his friend and long-time ally, Dmitry Medvedev, has been keeping the presidential seat warm. Whether or not Putin ultimately decides to return to the presidency, this time for a six-year term, or maintain the current 'tandem' arrangement with Medvedev, we believe that Russia's political power structure will remain largely unaltered, given the enormity of the country's bureaucratic inertia and the sizable task of reforming the political system towards greater competition, or decentralising the economy away from the Kremlin.

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