Following this year’s presidential inauguration and Cabinet appointments, Russia has entered the empty throne stage, which has two key characteristics. First, the president consciously and systematically raises the level of political uncertainty for the ruling elite. The second characteristic is a consequence of the first: the president is essentially inaccessible, even for the country’s senior executives and business leaders.
A quintessential example of creating such uncertainty is the attack on super-profits in the metallurgy industry initiated by presidential aide Andrei Belousov. He proposed stripping metal and fertilizer producers of profit received in the last year because prices for their products were anomalously high.
