June 13, 2023, the President of the Russian Federation held a meeting with war correspondents, at which the following most pressing issues were discussed: the situation on the front line, the state of the Russian military-industrial complex, the effectiveness of personnel “elevators” of the public administration system and many others. The head of state’s public assessment of key aspects of the situation in the country was, among other things, “psychotherapeutic”, which was due to the increase in threats to national security, primarily military and even terrorist: the attack of drones on residential areas of Moscow on May 30, 2023, the beginning of counteroffensive on June 4 by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the explosion of the dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant on the night of June 5 to 6, etc. In the course of communication with war correspondents, the President had more than once to admit mistakes and shortcomings in the system of public administration that have accumulated over the past 30 years, primarily due to the presence of a significant part of the elites who are guided by private rather than national interests. Today, work on correcting these mistakes is already underway in forced, extreme conditions caused by the nature of the actual wartime. But in order for this process to be effective, so that it gives a real result, it is necessary, as many experts note, to comply with a number of conditions: the political will of the head of state; the unity of society, elites and the President around the nationally oriented agenda of a special military operation; people’s awareness of the scale of threats to national security. The article analyzes the key events of recent months (May – June 2023). As an information base, we refer to the assessments of the expert community, official reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, the results of all-Russian and regional sociological surveys, etc
Keywords
society, President of the Russian Federation, special military operation, public administration system, elites, threats to national security