June 23–24, 2023, Russia witnessed an attempt of an armed rebellion committed by the private military company Wagner headed by businessman Evgenii Prigozhin. Despite the rapid relief of the crisis, many experts note that it has deep and long-lasting implications for the public administration system, the President and Russia as a whole. We consider the causes and consequences of the events that occurred on June 23–24, drawing on our knowledge and experience accumulated during many years of monitoring the effectiveness of public administration, which includes the analysis of expert opinions, findings of diverse empirical studies regarding the state of Russian society, and the study of key regulatory legal acts and strategic documents adopted at the federal level. We think that the attempt to start a rebellion manifests a long-term crisis of statehood, which was caused by the clan-oligarchic structure of the public administration system flourishing in Russia in the post-Soviet period. We analyze certain aspects of the formation of the worldview of the modern extremely liberal ruling elite, provide concrete facts that indicate that the liberal wing of the government does not implement the President’s decrees and instructions effectively, and evaluate the role of the public administration system in the formation and implementation of the Social Contract as an informal institution representing a set of mutual obligations between the state and society. We conclude that there is an urgent need for decisive action (first of all, on the part of the President) on the personnel renewal in the public administration system; it is also necessary to staff the system with people focused on Russia’s national interests rather than liberal values of the Collective West, the people that have successful experience in solving complex managerial and economic tasks, especially in crisis conditions and in the context of the special military operation. Like many experts, we believe that in this case the public administration system will be able to provide an adequate response to an unprecedented range of internal and external challenges created by increasing threats to national security and global geopolitical changes that led to the special military operation
Keywords
president, oligarchic capitalism, social contract, President, special military operation, public administration system, Social Contract