JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS

ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 12, 2020 REGARDING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN MODERN

Zinira F. Abrarova1, Larisa I. Benina2, Olga B. Mayatskaya3, Svetlana R. Parfyonova4, Aidar V. Sharipkulov5

1Associate Professor at the Department of and Youth Work at Bashkir State , PhD 2Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy and Political Science of Bashkir State University, PhD in Philosophy 3Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy and Political Science of Bashkir State University, PhD in Philosophy 4Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy and Political Science of Bashkir State University, PhD in 5postgraduate student of the Department of Philosophy and Political Science at Bashkir State University

Received: 14 Feb 2020 Revised and Accepted: 25 Aril 2020

ABSTRACT: The paper aims at analyzing the reasons for the lack of civic motivation to improve the system of political decision-making and political participation as a basis for the implementation of the constitutional principle of democracy.Analyzing the data of sociological studies conducted by Russian Public Opinion Research Center in 2005, 2012 and 2018 on interest in politics and on manifestations of political participation during periods of electoral activity, the authors conducted a secondary study on the dialectics of interaction between the authorities and citizens in the political and legal space of Russia, using the method of comparison and grouping (3,000 respondents as of January, 2018).The results of the study illustrate the rather active political participation of citizens: it is large-scale, intensive, and at the same time autonomous and conventional. The parameters of the political participation of this study are characteristic of the most active period – the presidential election campaign.Thus, the political participation of citizens in elections is traditionally massive, which was confirmed by the percentage of those who voted in 2018 (the turnout was over 67%) and in 2012 (the turnout was 65.4%). However, the preservation of the activity of political participation in the post-election period is considered unlikely (as evidenced by the decrease in the percentage ratio), which illustrates the political fatigue, fragmentation and periodicity, characteristic of a country with a statist form of political management. KEYWORDS: political activity, political process, political culture, democracy, the legitimation of power, non- governmental organizations.

I. INTRODUCTION The relevance of the study lies in the lack of an alternative to the political process of the last decades in Russia; this is proof that the electoral preferences of citizens are latent and cannot correlate with the qualitative composition of the deputies. There is no satisfaction of the political needs of all population groups. The authors reach this conclusion by considering the political and legal relations that develop during the election cycles at different levels, influencing the type of electoral reflection manifested in respect or disrespect for the institution of elections regardless of people's views and their political preferences. The internal political and international situation in modern Russia at the beginning of the XXI century has a definite influence on the social and political processes in Russian society. The urgent need to change the tired political party elite, the ongoing personnel changes in the governor's office do not affect the fundamentals of the constitutional order and are not ‘cosmetic’ at the same time. The hypothesis of the study is the assumption that the electoral system of a mixed type, the formality/monotony of party programmatic, the absence of party competition during the period of electoral silence (inter-electoral cycle) muffles the political interest of voters and their inclusion in the political life of the country. The dominant

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nature of a multi-party configuration, due to its political certainty which delivers a deliberately system-forming character, provokes the electorate to inaction. As a national political document, the Message of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly is considered, in which the examined structure of relations regarding representative power is viewed. Thus, in the Message of March 1, 2018, V.V. Putin assessed the state of the country as follows: “We have ensured stability in almost all spheres of life, and this is critically important for our vast multinational country with a complex federal structure, with a variety of cultures, with a memory of historical faults and most difficult trials that fell to the share of Russia. However, sustainability is the basis but not a guarantee of further development. We have no right to allow the stability achieved to lead to complacency. Moreover, many problems are far from being resolved. Russia today is one of the leading states with a powerful economic and defense potential. Yet, from the point of view of the most important task – ensuring the quality of life and the well-being of people – we, of course, have not yet reached the level we need”1. The President makes a forecast for the coming years, which, in his opinion, will be decisive for the future of the country. Forecasting in this case is important for understanding the essence of what is happening, since Russian President V.V. Putin is frequently mentioned in connection with the increase in the country's competitiveness and with the definition of the state’s development strategy for the coming years, and this strategy is connected with the issues of further democratization of the life of the Russians.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW In the article ‘On the Responsibility of Power’ researcher S.R. Parfenova2 speaks of national representation being a state power institution and of the fact said institution will justify its status only if the levers of control (dependent responsibility) will belong to those on whose behalf it acts. ‘Dependent responsibility’ as a mechanism for ensuring the attachment of a free mandate to the voter gives an understanding of the fact that the peculiarity of political participation is due to the one-sidedness of the political process. The verticality of the political process in Russia, in which the state plays a decisive role, guarantees a stable one-way communication with the population without providing systemic feedback, despite the abundance of public and civil control structures organized in compliance with the regulatory order. As practice shows, statism becomes the style of Russian political management, and in this sense political decision-making does not fully correlate with the interests of society as a whole. This thesis is illustrated by the state of healthcare and , science, development of production and productive forces throughout Russia, including in remote areas. Besides, fragmentary articulation of individual interests, occasionally ‘rushing’ into the Russian political process, and the desire to play independently on the platform of political participation collapse. This is due to several reasons: the lack of system, and, therefore, dependence on sociopolitical causes that have a clearly articulative public expression and public resonance. Information and communication tools have little influence on the formation of public opinion and do not adequately provide feedback to the state. All this allows concluding that Russian political system provides no effective interaction between the subjects of the political process, which actualizes the present study and makes it meet the expectations of interest in finding ways that motivate political participation, as well as the search for new theoretical and methodological approaches to the interaction dialectics in the political and legal space of Russia. Positive moments in the trends of the Russian political process should be noted. Its open character, connected with the style of political leadership, ensures stability and predictability, despite some formality of the public discussion of political decisions and their shadowy nature, as well as the insufficiency of technocratic characteristics. At the same time, the development mode is a guaranteeing moment for the absence of political conflicts, when two or more political actors collide. Reaching the decision-making level and influencing the decisions content are the essence of understanding the ‘political participation’ category, developed over the centuries. Participation in elections of authorities, in rallies and demonstrations, party activities, participation funding of political parties and individual candidates during

1http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_291976/ access 5.03 2018. 2Parfenova S.R. On the responsibility of the authorities // Ethnosocium and interethnic culture, 2014- No.11 (77) - P.53-56.

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 12, 2020 election campaigns, in turn, form a list of manifestations of political participation, including publications in various mass media to influence public opinion and political process. It should be noted that political participation (as a scientific category) and issues of the influence of political processes on the establishment of political power, the formation of political management, organization and conduct of elections to legislative representative bodies of state power are reflected in numerous fundamental and applied studies of foreign and domestic authors The works of V.I. Burenko, L.I. Benina, V.G. Ledyaev, S.R. Parfenov, A.I. Solovyev, L.V. Smorgunov, O.F. Shabrov are of significant interest for the development of political science and the present study. V.I.Burenko, in particular in the article ‘How to preserve freedom in a post-totalitarian society (K. Jaspers and modernity)’, analyzing the creative heritage of K. Jaspers, draws attention to the importance of legal education and interaction. The author notes: “The first means is political education and upbringing of the people. The only means is to introduce all people to knowledge, to awaken their will so that they learn, meditating, to gradually realize it. To lead people to freedom means to bring them into a state when they open up in front of each other in dialogue”3. Researcher Shabrov, analyzing the spiritual foundations of Russian politics, draws attention to the fact that “Political alienation is embedded in Russian culture, it can not only be imposed ‘from above’, it is inherent in the mass consciousness, it also goes ‘from below’, but this significantly expands the freedom of elites for social and political experiments. It also carries a danger both for society and for the elites themselves. The inhibition of political feedback, as a result of this alienation, has repeatedly in the of Russia generated the illusion of social harmony among the ruling classes, naturally entailed the accumulation of management errors, the growth of internal contradictions followed by a social explosion. “Russians harness slowly and drive fast” – these words, attributed to O. Bismarck, reflect this property of the Russian character which requires particularly subtle feedback mechanisms sensitive to the state of the masses, and leaders understanding their true moods”4. Scientists Yu.A. Golovin, S. E. Zaslavsky, B. A. Isaev, V. I. Kovalenko, N.P. Medvedev, A. S. Panarin, Y. A. Pleis, L. G. Titova and others pay great attention to problems of the political process in connection with political participation. Thus, N.P. Medvedev singled out the search for ways and means to achieve political consensus as one of the main problems in shaping civil society. By internal political consensus, the researcher understands "a certain degree of civil consensus regarding the political and legal structure and development problems (strategic and tactical) of a given country, characterized by significant support for the course being pursued and the absence of active opposition to it, which allows managing society by nonviolent methods"5. The works of Z.F. Abrarova, Yu. A. Vedeneev, A.A. Gorbachev, O.B. Mayatskaya, V.P. Pugachev, A.H. Saidov, A.K. Skovikov, B.F. Usmanov, T. Ya. Khabrieva, A.V. Shumilov, Ya.G. Yashimmina, etc are devoted to the issues of manipulating and enhancing the informational influence on the electorate. In particular, Yu.A. Vedeneev notes “The state and level of development of the political and legal culture of citizens, their ability to truly be subjects of the political and electoral process, are acquiring a fundamental importance in the development of truly democratic institutions of public authority”6. In this regard, T.Ya. Khabrieva views the Constitution as the basis of legality in the Russian Federation. She considers forms of interaction between the state and citizens in terms of assisting citizens (education, healthcare, etc.) on the one hand, and the responsibilitie of a person and citizen on the other. “These relations always take into account and sometimes dominate (for example, in the relations of individual associations and society as a whole) public interests. The financial responsibility of the state... implies the presence of private (personal)

3Burenko V.I. How to preserve freedom in a post-totalitarian society (K. Jaspers and the present) //https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/kak-sohranit-svobodu-v-posttotalitarnom-obschestve-k-yaspers-i- sovremennost 4 Shabrov O.F. Spiritual Foundations of Russian Politics // Open Education, 2011, No. 2 (86). P.155-158. 5Medvedev N.P. Consensual aspects of modern Russian federalism //https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/konsensualnye-aspekty-sovremennogo-rossiyskogo-federalizma 6 Vedeneev, Yu.A. Development of the electoral system of the Russian Federation: problems of legal institutionalization //https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/razvitie-izbiratelnoy-sistemy-rossiyskoy-federatsii- problemy-pravovoy-institutsionalizatsii

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 12, 2020 interests of a citizen but also public interests: strengthening the rule of law and shaping the image of the state not only as legal (according to legal norms) but also as legitimate (as represented by the population) institution”7. However, V.P. Pugachev in the study “Manipulation of the electorate in the electoral process of modern Russia” concludes that “for its legalization and legitimation, the ruling political class today has a sufficient number of different mechanisms for manipulating the political consciousness of the electorate. Among them are manipulation of consciousness – the administrative resource, status and legal pressure, economic and other levers of influence. In fact, having the ability to influence the very mechanism of organizing and conducting elections, the ruling political class is able to achieve favorable results for themselves. As a rule, the political class, represented in the highest legislative body, decides on the choice of the electoral system, the date of the elections, and details the procedures for organizing and conducting them, making the elections as formalized as possible. This allows us to state that when adopting electoral legislation, parliamentarians proceed from their own interests in order to preserve their authority”8. O.B. Mayatskaya enlarges on the topic of information . Information have an ambiguous impact on the processes occurring in modern society: there is a positive dynamics of their impact on people, yet there are negative trends that reflect both the complex nature of human interaction with new computer systems, and the attempts to use their potential to promote violence and terrorism9. Thus, the Internet “becomes an important component of people's lives. As a result, many ‘networked’ events (Rospil, Map of election violations, Virtual rynda) became a noticeable phenomenon in the life of society. In the modern political process in Russia, blogs, social networks and forums are being increasingly used for campaigning, attracting supporters, reporting political programs, and organizing and coordinating mass actions”10. Researcher Z.F. Abrarova believes that the media, exercising social control and management, influencing the formation of public opinion, and spreading knowledge, experience and culture, became an integral part of the life of modern society. Modern society cannot be imagined without intensive media exchanges in the information space. The media is a specific envoronment. The procedural component is the most dynamic and changing part of it – information and communication processes that actively influence the individual and social consciousness11. Among the authors studying the problem of applying electoral technologies to the electorate, the most famous are the works of B.N. Bessonov, E.L. Dotsenko, S.G. Kara-Murza, A.A. Kiselev, V. P. Lenypin, S. Yu. Lisovoy, E. Malkin, E. Suchkov, S. Faer, V. P. Sheinov, etc. S.G. Kara-Murza in his work ‘Between Ideology and Science’, analyzing the problems of teaching humanities in modern higher education, asserts: “Building a new community of social scientists on a methodological basis adequate to current problems and processes is an urgent and extraordinary task on the national agenda of Russia. This requires delicately limiting the monopoly in the social science of the elite, steeped in its permanent revolution”12. Political scientist A.A. Kiselev, researching political participation on the Internet, believes that “the difference between political participation on the Internet and traditional political participation is: resources (the participant’s income is more than 6,000 rubles, higher education, occupation is information and Internet technologies, media or advertising); significant factors (up to 35 years, male); preferential participation mechanisms (dominance of horizontal links); a different institutional context (virtual political system); the most effective forms of interaction;

7Khabrieva, T.Ya. Constitution as the basis of legality in the Russian Federation //https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/konstitutsiya-kak-osnova-zakonnosti-v-rossiyskoy-federatsii 8Pugachev V.P. Manipulating the electorate in the electoral process of modern Russia // Scientific Library of theses and abstracts disserCat http://www.dissercat.com/content/manipulirovanie-elektoratom-v-izbiratelnom- protsesse-sovremennoi-rossii#ixzz5TG7vY4zS 9 Mayatskaya O.B. The impact of the Internet on the values of the younger generation of Russians // Bulletin of science and practice, 2017. No. 11. - P.354-358. 10 Sokolov A.V. Internet technologies of political participation and their influence on offline policy / News of Altai State University, 4 (84), vol. 1. 2014. p. 303-310. 11 Abrarova Z. F., Kharipova G. Kh., Abrarov I. I. The Impact of the mass media on the formation of value orientations of modern youth // Eurasian Law Journal. - 2017. - No 4 (107). - p. 396-397. 12Kara-Murza S.G. Between ideology and science. // http: //www.academia.edu/7462498/Sergey Kara-Murza. Between ideology and science. Moscow. Scientific expert 2013. P.170

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opportunities for political participation on the Internet are currently used most effectively by non-conventional groups”13. “Modern domestic concepts of political participation view it as a complex multidimensional phenomenon, including a wide range of techniques related to political influence, and study the dependence of its forms and degrees of activity on social, economic, cultural, psychological and other factors, and on the level of development of democracy in society"14.

III. RESULTS However, political science requires additional knowledge, in particular, in the development of theoretical and practical technologies affecting the political and legal socialization of the population, which may result, on the one hand, in minimizing manipulation of the political consciousness of the electorate, and on the other hand, in the formation of political maturity of citizens, contributing to the overall positive stabilization of social relations development in Russia and, as a consequence, increase the index of political participation. “In Russia, as in any other country, there is a certain political-cultural genotype that significantly influences the course of the political process, the nature of communication between the individual, society and the state. The peculiarities of this genotype include the traditional discrepancy between the views of the people and the political elite on many political problems related to the functioning of the state and government. The consequence of this is the inconsistency and fragmentation of political culture”15. Issues of political stability and creating a sociocultural field that meets the interests of the population with political thinking, issues of developing criteria for evaluating the effectiveness and indicators of the sustainability of public relations in the country in connection with the dynamics of political processes that influence the convening of a formalized political elite to address pressing issues of the political regime, issues of electoral legislation to increase the political culture of voters and the population as a whole, manipulation of political consciousness of the electorate and, in this context, development of information and communication tools that provide objective political knowledge and reflect the political processes that affect the political stability in the country are the focus of the political leadership of the country. The sociological trend in science and its use in shaping the strategies of political management is undoubtedly of great practical importance for monitoring these processes. It is encouraging that the Russian Public Opinion Research Center conducts weekly measurements of electoral preferences for open publication, so that the authorities and citizens can relate their political well-being when making decisions. This is a significant positive factor demonstrating the openness of the government and its interest in the voters’ opinion. In a sociological study conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center on the intentions of Russians to participate in voting and on specific manifestations of political participation, the question of experts was ‘Will you be taking part in the presidential elections to be held in March 2018?’ At the end of February 2018, 70.9% of respondents answered positively16. The study does not deliberately analyze the course of voting on March 18, 2018, since on this day the political participation of citizens is predetermined by law and regardless of the election results, it is traditionally massive in Russia a priori, which was confirmed by a record percentage of those who came to the polls. More precisely, the turnout in Russia is more than 67%, and in the 2012 elections, the turnout was 65.34%. Konstantin Kostin, head of the Civil Society Development Fund, believes this is the main result of the latest vote: “We have said many times that if democracy is presented not only as a set of ideals and values but as a way of organizing a state, the turnout is very important – voter participation in the formation of government bodies, in the choice of the head of state, of course, is extremely important”17.

13 Kiselev A.A. Political participation in the Internet // Scientific library of theses and abstracts disserCat http://www.dissercat.com/content/politicheskoe-uchastie-v-internete#ixzz5TG4Fd4wk

14 Bolkhovitina T.S. On political participation: from the history of political thought / Proceedings of Tula State University. 2011. No. 3. P. 253-262. 15 Benina L.I. Communication problems between the mass and elite stratum of political culture in modern Russia / International Scientific Research Journal. 2 (44), p. 66-68. 16https://wciom.ru/news/ratings/vybory_2018/access 6.03.2018. 17http://www.politonline.ru/interpretation/22892572.html/access 20.03 2018

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Nevertheless, active political participation of citizens in the post-election period is unlikely, as evidenced by the decrease in the percentage ratio, which already illustrates political fatigue and speaks of fragmentation and periodicity, which is also characteristic of a country with a statist form of political management. If one ignores the electoral process as a pretext for intensifying the political participation of citizens, it should be noted that researchers also point to other forms of political participation, such as the development of citizen initiative, the so-called ‘movement of one demand’: the movement of deceived shareholders, the movement of motorists, of deceived consumers and the like. Such movements are, as a rule, well organized and mobile, but they cannot represent an alternative to leaders among the subjects of political participation - large financial and industrial groups. When participating in politics, Russians deal mainly with three types of organizations: public- political and youth organizations, non-governmental organizations and associations, and political parties. The development level of the citizens’ political culture is manifested in their attitude to political parties. The data of sociological polls indicate a very critical attitude of Russians towards political parties and the party system of Russia as a whole. The most attractive for citizens are those parties that advocate justice, social protection of the population and the revival of a powerful state. The only party with the largest electoral support is United Russia, but this support is addressed not so much to the party itself, but to V.V. Putin. One has to admit that participation in social and political life (in political organizations, in election campaigns, in the activities of elected bodies, appeal to the media and authorities, etc.) is not among the obvious priorities of Russian citizens. Firstly, this is due to the low level of trust in most state and public institutions; and second, to the idea (dominating the mass consciousness) of the notorious ineffectiveness of participation in such type of activity. This suggests the need, on the one hand, to destroy the existing negative stereotype that citizen participation in public and political life cannot have a significant impact on the social and political situation in the country, and on the other hand, to promote the existing practices of effective civic participation. Researcher L.I. Benina notes: “The party system as a means of expressing the entire complex of public interests has been at the formative stage for 30 years, and is not yet a serious factor in the development of democratic models of political thinking and behavior. Since political culture, in essence, is a rather conservative phenomenon and changes much more slowly than the political process, the former can slow the latter down at certain points in history. In the mass consciousness of the reforming society, traditional Soviet stereotypes of thinking that resist democratic transformations still exist”18. Taking into account the expert opinion, it seems that in this study it is possible to pay special attention to the genesis of the relationship of large financial-industrial groups and authorities. Domestic political processes in Russia, so closely examined by both domestic and foreign political researchers, indicate a tendency to monopolize political participation, which, in the authors' opinion, is a fundamental factor in the development of democratic principles in the Russian political space. The monopoly's carriers are already formed business groups that actively declare themselves as top actors in Russian politics. It seems the trend can continue with the election of the current President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, due to a certain dependence on the forces representing large business in the country. This state of the political monopoly of supergroups of political participation may possibly affect the technological and political backwardness of Russia, which is explained by natural processes related to competition issues. However, the political and technological lag can be avoided by ensuring the real interaction of political actors during the life support period of the country's political system, and by changing the structure of the political process. Such interaction, of course, depends on many factors: on the ways of developing political decisions, new structures, institutions, on elections to all levels of government, political culture and others. The authors believe that in terms of political participation, political parties in the present period cannot compete with business groups that have had some experience since 1998. This experience is connected with the situation when the owners of large financial capital in 1996 came into conflict with representatives of the executive branch. The reason for the conflict was the redistribution of property; the business community believed that the financing of the 1996 presidential election campaign made it possible to dictate conditions to the government during state property privatization. The conflict that paralyzed the government’s activities ended with the government’s resignation in early 1998 (Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation was V.S. Chernomyrdin (1993- 1998)).

18 Benina L.I. The radicalism of the Russian political culture as a factor in the development of the political process. // BIST Bulletin - 2018, - No.2 (39) - P.83-84.

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A continuation to the story of political experience development is a fragment of the conflict between the authorities and the Yukos company. Economic crimes, expressed in semi-legal ways of avoiding taxes, were the reason for preventing attempts to control political processes in Russia. The company actively financed the 2003 elections, which, in turn, allowed the company to put its own questions to the elects. Political parties, in turn, among other things designed to ensure broad political participation, are still in the state of search for identity. The political party programmatic does neither articulate nor aggregate the interests of citizens, and even more so, the parties themselves do not represent the interests of broad sections of the population, and therefore do not have their own stable social base. Here, again, the large business communities are the most prominent in this sense and in the sense of political participation.

IV. DISCUSSION Much time has passed since the beginning of the collapse of the USSR, and it became possible to characterize this period as an interlacing of interests. The participation of representatives of the authorities in privatization makes clear the answer to the question of why the majority of financial-industrial groups were created taking into account political interests and dependence on top officials. The development of financial and industrial groups was carried out taking into account the sectoral principle of the economy, and therefore, taking into account the opinions and interests of ministries and departments, and this, in turn, formed public opinion in favor of the illegal nature of the privatization process and the dubious interests of the state in relation to the state economy, and focus on private actors. It can be argued that all subjects of political activity consider large Russian business as a partner for shaping the protection of common corporate interests and financial support, but the business, for its part, is in need of state support, since the instability of the economic situation forces to ask for administrative resources. The liberal radical model of the past and the inability of the state to control the main life-support systems quickly called for the emergence of financial-industrial groups. At the same time, rapidly recovering processes in the commodity sector also led to rapidly differentiating property stratification, corruption, and exacerbation of social conflicts. In such situation, the only correct decision was taken – a change of power which occurred in 1999. The most important program directives of the new government were set forth in the annual Messages to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. The main messages to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in 2003 were the achievement of growth dynamics, the development of a strategy for the revival of Russia and the formation of a public mentality not related to paternalism, the rejection of monopolism in the infrastructure sector, and the orientation of large businesses to the social needs of the population. On the eve of the election campaign of 2004, the Russian Independent Institute of Social and National Problems published (on May 17, 2003 in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper) the results of the study, the main ones being exponential attitudes of citizens towards large financial and industrial groups. Thus, the growth of the oligarchs’ influence on the development of Russia tripled, and that of banks was fourfold. At the same time, workers, peasants and the military industrial complexes were recognized to have lost influence on the development of Russia. The positions of the government, in the opinion of the Russians, remain unshakable. Realizing that political participation of large business is beginning through real pressure on decision-making at the federal level to turn into a fiction the declared democratic constitutional norms that ensure the vital activity of the political system of Russia, V.V. Putin begins a confrontation with B. Berezovsky, then with V. Gusinsky, who had his levers of influence on the media business. The next in the structure of the disgraced oligarch was M. Khodorkovsky, who, in fact, financed the opposition forces and began to compete with the Kremlin. V.V. Putin’s hard power policy against large business during his first term in office, combined with rising oil prices (which also affected Russia's economic condition), is considered record-breaking for that period: budget surplus, GDP growth by 6.5%, a decrease in the external debt by 20% and an increase in population welfare. However, in 2004, the internal political situation in the country changed: economic growth slowed down, relations with Ukraine and Georgia were deteriorating, the West was threatening to isolate Russia, and opposition activity declined. “During Putin’s second term, state policy priorities continued to be set out in messages to the Federal Assembly. On May 26, 2004, three ‘national projects’ were proclaimed: overcoming poverty, modernizing the armed forces, and housing reform. In the sixth message (April 25, 2005), liberal initiatives in the economic sphere and an orientation toward the establishment of a free democratic society in Russia were united with the previous course of creating an effective state apparatus. In addition, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, Putin referred to ‘soldiers of freedom’, who saved the world from fascism, and noted the historical

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 12, 2020 role of the USSR in the victory over Hitler and his allies. In the seventh presidential message (May 2006), V.V. Putin focused on two topics: firstly, the issues of demography and family, and second, the need to modernize the army. In addition, the message contained criticism of the United States, and some foreign observers considered it confrontational”19. By 2012, large business (the trend continues in 2018) became balanced in terms of manifestation of political ambitions; however, the influence of large capital on political decision-making is still great. It seems important to determine the forms of influence and the place of capital in the political system of Russian society. Here, the authors regard the Message of the President to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in 2018. “Russia needs an economy with growth rates higher than the world ones; this is the basic condition for a breakthrough,” Head of state said. Labor productivity should grow at a rate not lower than 5% per year in order to reach the level of the leading economies of the world in 10 years. To achieve economic growth, it is also necessary to ensure investment growth of up to 25-27% GDP. V.V. Putin considers it necessary to reduce the state’s share in the economy. He set the task of increasing the efficiency of government spending and of creating a stable tax environment. “Everything that allows unscrupulous, corrupt representatives of the authorities and law enforcement agencies to put pressure on business is to be eliminated. The criminal code should cease to be a tool for resolving economic conflicts between legal entities. Such disputes need to be transferred to the administrative and arbitration plane”, said V.V. Putin20. “The authorities will do everything possible for the development of entrepreneurship in the country, while business should also increase its contribution to the strategic task – the breakthrough development of Russia. New macroeconomic reality allows carefully and responsibly reducing lending rates. The state should vigorously sell assets that have passed under its control during the recovery of the banking system”21. There is a desire to build effective interaction; however, the country's economy as a whole depends on the activities of large financial-industrial groups, which means that large businesses still have natural leverage on power. The lower the vector of a geographical position of business descends, the stronger the interaction. Town-forming enterprises are an example of joint activities and an open form of political participation. The political resource of a big capital also contains the administrative component, that is, personal communications based on informal relations with representatives of various levels of government. These relations have their own political traditions formed in the early 90s of the last century, during the accumulation of initial capital. Thus, according to the results of the Ufa city council elections (the Republic of Bashkortostan, September 18, 2016), the majority of deputies elected are business representatives. Alexander Krasovsky published an article entitled ‘Five steps to political success. Allowance for the Ufa City Council deputies’. (13.07.2017, www.sobkor02.ru). In the article, the journalist analyzes the qualitative composition of the city council and the situation with the representativeness of power. “Analyzing the composition of the Ufa city council, the disproportion in the professional representation of deputies is striking. The absolute majority of deputies are representatives of business, namely, heads or deputy heads of large organizations and enterprises of the city. This raises a number of legitimate questions. Firstly, what is the real representation of the interests of the population in the Ufa city council? Isn't the city council a place where the interests of big business are realized through lobbying tools, which is reflected in the regulatory decisions taken by deputies? Second, doesn’t a conflict of interests arise when the deputies of the city council are forced to make decisions that may go against the goals and objectives of the enterprises they represent. At the same time, the analysis of the activities of the deputies of the Ufa city council is hampered by the non-public and informal nature of their functioning, which only confirms the assumption that a significant part of the deputies are trying to use the city council as a tool for lobbying their interests. For instance, the chairs in the Ufa City Council are occupied by the leaders of large organizations and enterprises, such as Sergei Kopysov, Director of the repair and construction complex UMPO, and Sergey Bublichenko, his colleague from the same defense enterprise; Sergei Gordeyev, Deputy General Director of Gazprom Transgaz Ufa; Artur Abdullin, representative of Lukoil; banker Aydar Zubairov; Pavel Gordeyev, Head of Promtsentr

19http://biofile.ru/his/32022.html/access 22.03.2018 20https://tass.ru access 1.10.2018 21http://рспп.рф/news/view/13890/access 22.03.2018

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industrial park; Iosif Marach; Head of the Ufa Central Market; Anatoly Goryachev, owner of the Lavors company; Valery Trofimov, Director of Energoengineering; Vadim Lukyanov, Head of the research and production association ‘Fire Protection’, Yury Smirnov, representative of the Icom company; and Svetlana Rodionova, representative of the Ufanet company. In addition, two representatives of security agencies – Yury Vasilyev, who works in the private security service ‘Volkodav-2’ and Andrei Borisov from the security company ‘Centurion’ – turned out to be among the deputies. In addition, plenty of mandates belong to builders – the head of the Ufa ‘FCP-2’ Tagir Safiullin, Chairman of the board of the ‘Gosstroy’ company Timofey Vakhmin, General Director of ‘Bashgrazhdanstroy’ Marat Akhmadullin, Head of ‘Agidel-Investstroy’ Fiusus Ishbulatov and a representative of ‘ZhilRemStroy’ Rustam Mukaev. It is believed that Andrew Noskov owns the construction company PSK-6, but he ran for the city council as Director of the company ‘Enterprise Management, Finance and Business’, and deputy Artur Khazigaleev is listed as ‘investor’. Besides, there were enough representatives of municipal enterprises controlled by the Ufa Mayor and subsidized by it – Ruslan Zinatullin heads the Municipal Unitary Enterprise ‘Tral’, Ruslan Kinzikeev – the city funeral service, and Kirill Badikov – the city mortgage lending agency. Thus, even at the local level, business, having passed a series of stages in its formation and development, has reached the level of belonging to power without possessing institutional characteristics. “The Ufa city council, as a representative body of local self-government, ensures the functioning of the administration and the head of the city, but as an independent political entity, it has not yet realized itself. It is the wrong subjectivity, as they say. There are only lobbying opportunities. It can only be stated that the Ufa city council is not a place for discussion, it does not act as an authority that really solves the issues concerning the Ufa public. The most acute problems of the city, including those having access to public space in the city council are not discussed, or such discussiona are not of an open nature. So far, the city council of Ufa is a closed power structure with an extremely weak information presence”, says Alexander Krasovsky This extensive quotation gives an insight into the actual picture of real political participation at the decision- making level, at the level of active (not only open) interaction and of direct participation in structures that form group interests around power centers, which are supergroups, that is, carriers of power. Thus, financial-industrial groups become independent political actors, such as the media, parties, or other structures of civil society. Today, the functions performed by financial-industrial groups are similar to the functions performed by parties, which, in turn, implement corporate policies similar to those implemented by financial-industrial groups. The trend of 2000-2001, when the authorities controlled the formation of supergroups, persists; decision-making prerogatives belong to the center. The alternative ‘old team, family team’ – ‘St. Petersburg team, Putin’s team’ disappeared. The center, as the holder of the main ‘political assets’, grew strong, and the industrial-financial groups underwent transformations, acquiring specific characteristics. First, there was a replacement of interests: the economic interest was replaced by the political one; team actions changed to individual ones. Financial-industrial groups are independent subjects of political claims; they act in harmony with the main political actors in the domestic field of the Russian political system. Partnership with party structures and changes in electoral legislation allowed supergroups at appropriate levels of government to form their alliances, including representatives of business communities, apart from self-promoted individuals, that is, to form their own structures, including representatives of different party groups – those belonging to ‘lists’ and those with a single mandate. The goal is presumably the formation of own lobby; the super goal, presumably, is the achievement of full power.

V. CONCLUSION Summing up the study, analyzing election campaigns of various levels, their political structuring, it seems important to determine indicators of political identification (Russian Public Opinion Research Center) that differ from political socialization by inclusion in political life (an indicator of interest in political issues), by citizen participation in political organizations, and by attitudes towards political forces in the country. “The model of researching the political participation of certain social communities should simultaneously include an assessment

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of both its substantive indicators, such as the level of institutionalization, activity and conventionality, acting as dependent variables, and the factors determining their severity: ideas about power and society and attitudes towards them; socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics; motives and value preferences" The essence and significance of the genesis of the domestic type of political management as a mechanism for the functioning of the political system of Russia continue to be relevant for scientific research. Political categories that have become relevant, such as ‘political participation’, ‘political discourse’, ‘information and communication technologies’, ‘electoral identity’ and others require further detailed and careful study, taking into account the latest qualitative characteristics. “The gap between the people and the subjects of power is fraught not only with apathy but also with the observed absenteeism of the voters, and hence the breeding ground for mass destructive manifestations. It makes not only voters but also the population as a whole easy prey for political adventurers. In fact, in today's political situation, given some internal contradictions and external economic aggression towards Russia, it seems interesting to anticipate trends in domestic pluralism” The active development of political science in Russia over the past two decades, motivated by intensively developing political processes and the ‘maturing’ of the thinking electorate requires more and more research in the humanitarian sphere and more and more analytical reports on the results of political campaigns for the development of socio-political knowledge.

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