The Logic of Loyalty
Russia’s Servile Technocrats
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Russia no longer has an elite. The leadership stratum of the civilian state apparatus has transformed into a servile nobility. This is the result of a deliberate depoliticisation that Putin pursued as early as the 2000s through the institutional disempowerment of governors, ministers, and economic magnates. The conse-quence has been a total erosion of institutions. Even the security of property depends on the whims of the man at the top. In a post-Putin era, this will not simply change. Servile executors do not overnight become individuals capable of thinking autonomously and strategically, weighing alternatives, and engaging in public debate.
(Osteuropa 1-2/2026, pp. 73–82)