The writer is a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin
The west looks for signs of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s weakness in the form of a high-profile split in the elite, or falling popularity ratings as the public mood sours. Yet while the regime is under real pressure, it remains resilient. The erosion that matters is easier to miss — perhaps even a little dull. Fiscal discipline slipped long ago, and now budgetary processes and parliamentary checks are also being quietly set aside.
It took Russia’s parliament just 72 hours this month to grant the finance ministry the power to spend more and borrow past the legal debt ceiling without formally rewriting the budget or obtaining parliamentary approval. It needs to react to a worsening environment “not every month or every quarter, but every day”, the ministry explained. In the fifth year of a costly war, even a rubber-stamp legislature has become an obstacle to be removed.