Bogatyrev, S.V. Genesis and Development of a New Political Elite of the Russian Federation (2000-2012)

Abstract: The article is devoted to political features of the Russian ruling elite at the end of the 1990th — 2000th when Vladimir Putin was in power. Russian political experts describe it as the period of democracy consolidation. Based on massive biographical materials, the author analyzes the Russian ruling elite and particular groups in office based on their main social features such as: place of birth, age, education and career. In his article Bogatyrev tries to find out how radical the social and political changes have been after Vladimir Putin came to office and what impact these events have had on the process of the renewal of the ruling elite in the Russian Federation. The author of the article also views the policy conducted by the experts with reference to the government machine and military government of the country and defines the role of the new ruling elite, its competence and efficiency in governing the country. The methodological grounds of the research involve politological, juridical, historical and sociological researches that reveal genesis, essence and principles of the development of the new ruling elite of Russia (2000–2012). The research is based on general principles of studying social and political phenomena such as systematic, holistic and contradictory development as well as the unity of the historical and logical, theory and practice. The topicality of the research is caused by the fact that the author has solved the important task related to the further development of the politological concept of the development functioning of elite groups of the Russian society: the author has described the stages of the development of regional ruling elites in Russia and the role of the institution of regional authority. For the first time in the academic literature the author outlines the main functions of regional and centralized ruling elites at the regional and general national levels (representation, defense and lobbying through interests of the regional community, support of bilateral relations, influence or participation in the process of the formation of central authority).

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