MOSCOW (Realist English). In the year of the special operation, the Russian elites has become much more homogeneous ideologically, because all those who were against the special military operation somehow dropped out of the ruling class, said Yevgeny Minchenko, president of the communication holding “Minchenko Consulting” in a comment for EISI.
“All those who were against the special military operation somehow dropped out of the elite: both out of business and politics, and, of course, a significant part of the cultural elite left Russia. Therefore, the elite has become more monolithic. At the same time, interestingly, these departed singers and actors who claimed to be the conscience of the nation are not perceived as such by the population. There was a process of “delomization” (LOM is the Russian abbreviation for “leader of public opinion”) according to Viktor Poturemsky‘s apt remark, and we actually had a shortage of public opinion leaders,” the political scientist stressed.
Minchenko notes that despite a large-scale program of training, retraining, and selection of the managerial elite, “there are not so many changes at the level of top players in Russian politics”:
“Somebody comes, somebody goes, but the core has remained unchanged since 2012. It is clear that this Politburo is not getting younger, but the average age has somewhat decreased with the entry into its composition of full members of the Politburo such personalities as Mikhail Mishustin and Sergey Kiriyenko.”
The political scientist speaks about the inevitability of the rejuvenation of the Russian elite.
“In the future, the elite will be getting younger. We see this already on the example of the governor’s corps, and on the example of the government. It will become more patriotic. We held games where we tried to model the contours of the new party system. No pro-Western political forces appeared in any of the groups where we conducted this experiment.
I think that this niche will be empty in the next few years, and then quite serious competition will unfold within the patriotic camp. Apparently, the reboot of the left sector is overdue and overripe. And I think the potential renewal zone is the left camp, and it is far from a fact that the Communist Party will retain a monopoly in this niche.” he concluded.
