Coordination and control in Russia’s foreign policy: travails of Putin’s curators in the near abroad

Abstract

This article seeks to challenge the conception of the Russian state as being centred on Vladimir Putin by looking at the actors implementing Russia’s foreign policy in its near abroad. In particular, it explores the activities of curators (kuratory), a term applied in Russia to describe officials tasked with making things work often bypassing, and sometimes competing with, formal institutions. Following the state transformation framework, the argument put forward in the article is that curation (kuratorstvo), as a practice of coordination and control in Russia’s system of governance, can be seen as a manifestation of fragmentation and internationalisation of Russia’s foreign policy making. The empirical basis for this article is a case study of Russia’s policy towards Abkhazia, which Russia officially recognised as a sovereign state in 2008. This article addresses the involvement of curators in their attempts to exert political influence as an expression of fragmentation as well as emerging institutionalised curation in development assistance as a part of internationalisation.

Keywords:

• Foreign policy
• state transformation
• Russia
• Abkhazia
• curators

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank organisers of the workshop on Rising Powers and State Transformation at Queen Mary University of London, where the first draft of this article was presented in November 2017. The author is especially grateful to John Heathershaw and anonymous reviewers for useful comments and suggestions, as well as to all who took time and agreed to share their observations in Abkhazia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The Economist, “Putin the Great Unknown.”

2 Hill, “Vladimir Putin’s World View”; Götz, “Putin, the State, and War.”

3 Kotkin, “Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics,” 8.

4 Grigas, “Who’s Next on Putin’s List?”; Rogstad, “The Next Crimea?”

5 Lo, Russia and the New World Disorder, 118.

6 Hameiri and Jones, “Rising Powers and State Transformation,” 72–98.

7 Hameiri, Jones, and Heathershaw, “Reframing the Rising Powers Debate.”

8 Ibid.

9 Marten, “Informal Political Networks,” 71–87.

10 Kononenko, “Introduction,” 3.

11 Ibid, 7.

12 Heathershaw and Schatz, “An Introduction”; Greene “Running to Stand Still”; Hale, Patronal Politics.

13 Dawisha, “Is Russia’s Foreign Policy,” 331–65.

14 Hameiri and Jones, “Rising Powers and State Transformation,” 72–98.

15 Zygar, All the Kremlin’s Men, 5.

16 Averkov, “Принятие внешнеполитическиx решений в России,” 117.

17 Ibid., 120.

18 Presidential Decree, 9 June 2012.

19 Presidential Decree, 25 June 2012.

20 Ibid.

21 Dergachev and Khimshiashvili, “Сурков нашёл нового куратора для Абхазии.”

22 Goryashko, “Владислав Сурков вернулся в Кремль.”

23 Toal, Near Abroad; ICG, “Russia and the separatists in Eastern Ukraine.”

24 Pavlovsky, “Russian Politics under Putin,” 12–13.

25 Toal, Near Abroad, 247.

26 Ibid., 357.

27 Wilson, “Smotryashchie, kuratory (Russia, Ukraine),” 456.

28 Pavlovsky, “Russian Politics under Putin,” 17.

29 Ledeneva, Can Russia Modernise?

30 Ledeneva, “Interview.”

31 Ledeneva, Can Russia Modernise? 237.

32 Within sistema, two references are used to describe such a person: kurator and smotryashchii (Ledeneva, Can Russia Modernise? 278). The latter term literally means ‘watching’, has a criminal underworld connotation and refers to a person in charge of overseeing that codes of behaviour are accordingly observed. On the difference between the two terms see Wilson, “Smotryashchie, kuratory (Russia, Ukraine),” 455–7.

33 Allenova, “Абхазское смещение.”

34 The description of perceptions is based on interviews conducted in Abkhazia with current and former officials, historians, lawyers, businessmen, journalists and NGO representatives (12 September–6 October 2017 and 3 September–5 October 2018).

35 Lakoba, Абхазия de Facto или Грузия de Jure, 48.

36 Antonenko, “Frozen Uncertainty,” 205–69.

37 Lakoba, Абхазия после двух империй.

38 Cited in Antonenko, “Frozen Uncertainty,” 232.

39 Zygar, All the Kremlin’s Men, 102–3.

40 Krivenjuk, “Русский пиар в Абхазии.”

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Lakoba and Bgazhba, История Абхазии, 408.

44 Ó Beacháin, “The Dynamics of Electoral Politics,” 165–74.

45 Antonenko, “Frozen Uncertainty,” 265.

46 Ibid., 266.

47 Krivenjuk, “Владислав Ардзинба,” 22.

48 The description of Russian and Abkhazian drafts of the treaty as well as changes in the final version draws from Kavkazskii Uzel, “Проекты российско-абхазского договора о союзничестве.”

49 Ibid.

50 Achugba, Родину надо беречь, 76.

51 Krivenjuk, “Скандальные предложения Тараса Шамбы.”

52 Panfilov, “Грузия изучает тайны Суркова.”

53 Inal-Ipa, “Московский проект договора Сухум не устроил.”

54 Ibid.

55 Author’s interview with a former government official, 26 September 2017, Abkhazia.

56 Author’s interview with a former government official, 20 September 2018, Abkhazia.

57 Author’s interview with a government official, 14 September 2018, Abkhazia.

58 The depiction of institutional structure is based on audit report by Russia’s Accounts Chamber, “Отчёт о результатах (2013),” 80–1.

59 Apsny Press, “Посол России в Абхазии.”

60 Ekho Kavkaza, “Обьём товарооборота между Россией и Абхазией.”

61 Author’s interview with a former government official, 3 October 2017, Abkhazia.

62 Accounts Chamber, “Отчёт о результатах 2010,” 5.

63 Respublika Abkhazia, “Исходя из национального законодательства.”

64 Ibid.

65 Ibid.

66 Author’s interview with a former government official, 2 October 2018, Abkhazia.

67 Author’s interview with a deputy, 20 September 2018, Abkhazia.

68 Antonenko, “Frozen Uncertainty,” 227.

69 Tekushev, “Сурков и его «квартирный вопрос» в Абхазии.”

70 Chania, “Особенности национальной охоты.”

71 Gumba, “Россия во внутриполитическом дискурсе Абхазии,” 90.

72 Author’s interview with an NGO representative, 24 September 2018, Abkhazia.

73 Ibid.

74 Author’s interview with an NGO representative, 25 September 2018, Abkhazia.

75 Ortmann, “The Russian Network State,” 162.

76 Autor’s interview with a former government official, 2 October 2018, Abkhazia.

Additional information

Funding

This article was made possible thanks to funding from the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION, the Viadrina Institute for European Studies, the Viadrina Center for Graduate Studies and the Faculty of Social and Cultural Studies of the European University Viadrina Frankfurt Oder, as well as from the Independent Social Science Foundation, the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London and Australian Research Council grant DP1701102647.

Notes on contributors

Daria Isachenko

Daria Isachenko is an Associated Researcher at the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION of the European University Viadrina Frankfurt Oder. Her research areas include post-conflict statebuilding and peacebuilding, foreign policy and political sociology of international relations. The regional focus is on post-Soviet Eurasia and Southeast Europe. Among her publications is The Making of Informal States: Statebuilding in Northern Cyprus and Transdniestria (Palgrave Macmillan Series: Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies, 2012).