Discourses of ‘Krizis’: Economic Crisis in Russia and Regime Legitimacy

Abstract

By the time Vladimir Putin left presidential office in early 2008, the claim to power by the Russian authorities had been increasingly based on performance legitimacy. The financial and economic crisis that began to extend to Russia in late 2008 represented a major challenge for the Putin and Medvedev ‘tandem’. Several narratives which suggest different assessments of the causes of the crisis and its significance for Russia were presented in official discourse by sections of the political elite during the years 2008–10 in an attempt to avoid a possible deficit in the regime's legitimacy.