Almost 20 years after Vladimir Putin's accession to the presidency in 2000, how should the Russian political system be defined?

Attitudes vis-à-vis Russia expressed in the public sphere are heterogeneous, in France more so than in Germany. In both France and Germany, the general public is by and large skeptical of Vladimir Putin and his policies. The picture is more diverse in the political realm. In Germany, there (still) is an approach that might be qualified as “mainstream”. The French debate, in turn, is highly fragmented.

In January 2017, U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed that Russia had indeed attempted to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election campaign. This effort took two forms: on the one hand, beginning in the Summer of 2016, the hacking and publication of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails, in order to hurt the Democratic candidacy; and on the other hand, an aggressive communication campaign aimed at disrupting the electoral process in favor of Donald Trump.

This paper analyses the phenomenon of “Kadyrovism” as a relatively coherent ideology which possesses its own internal logic and propaganda tools and which reflects the reality of Ramzan Kadyrov’s rule, based on submission to Vladimir Putin while also being marked by provocative acts directed at the paternal figure of the Russian President.

In this short study of attempts that have been made in recent years to modernize the Russian economy, the author explains why they have all ended in failure. Unlike most experts, he focuses on politics and ideology.