Regime and personal survival are often overlooked as pundits and scholars alike try to build elaborate models of an ideology that drives Russia’s elite. But all the way back to the first unfairly contested reelection of Putin in 2005, perpetuating rule to avoid the repercussions of ill-gotten gains is a much better diagnosis of the regime’s impetus.

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After the global financial crisis of 2008, Russians saw some of the worst income stagnation in Europe, staggering wealth concentration (far higher than the USA or China), and high levels of extreme poverty. By 2018, real incomes had likely declined by 11 percent since 2014. The true, and staggering, extent of high poverty and inequality levels in Russia is likely not adequately captured by statistics, but it is reasonable to say that as of 2025, incomes are no higher in real terms than in 2013. What makes Russia exceptional is that the post-1991 political economy was designed with wealth concentration in mind.

—Jeremy Morris, „Russia’s Vanguard Authoritarian Neoliberal System“, in Backlash: The Global Rise of the Radical Right, (London: Pluto Press, 2026), 126-127.