Securitising Russia. The domestic politics of Putin

This work shows the impact of twenty-first century security concerns on the way Russia is ruled. It demonstrates how President Putin has wrestled with terrorism, immigration, media freedom, religious pluralism, and economic globalism, and argues that fears of a return to old-style authoritarianism oversimplify the complex context of contemporary Russia.

Since the early 1990s Russia has been repeatedly analysed in terms of whether it is becoming a democracy or not. Securitising Russia instead focuses on the internal security issues common to many states in the early twenty-first century, and places them in the particular context of Russia, the world’s largest country, still dealing with its legacy of communism and authoritarianism. Detailed analysis of the place of security in Russia’s political discourse and policy-making reveals nuances often missing from overarching assessments of Russia today. To characterise the Putin regime as the ‘KGB-resurgent’ is to miss vital continuities, contexts, and on-going political conflicts which make up the contemporary Russian scene.

The authors draw together current debates about whether Russia is a ‘normal’ country developing its own democratic and market structures, or a nascent authoritarian regime returning to the past. Drawing on extensive interviews and Russian source material, this book argues that the growing security factor in Russia’s domestic politics is neither ubiquitous nor unchallenged. It must be understood in the context of Russia’s immediate history and the growing domestic security concerns of many states the world over.

Edwin Bacon is Reader in Comparative Politics at Birkbeck College, the University of London. Bettina Renz is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the European Research Institute at the University of Birmingham.