During 2022, the year of Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Russian system demonstrated an unexpectedly high degree of resilience. This resilience can be attributed (at least in part) to shifts in the quality of governance at the regional level over the past 10 years. The significance of these shifts is still underestimated. At the same time, the accumulation of economic problems and the reduction of funds for redistribution in the coming years may quickly and dramatically change this situation and lead to conflicting incentives for the Russian leadership: the task of maintaining political control over the regions will require centralization, while the economic crisis will create incentives for decentralization. Irina and Andrey will discuss developments in the quality of regional governance and Moscow's policy toward the regions and regional responses.

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