The main crisis gripping Russia is a crisis of government. When a government is unable to govern it pretends to govern, and Moscow proposed a record number of measures that could be termed “pseudo-governance” last week. The first was the creation of the North Caucasus Federal District.
The tsar’s appointed governor used to rule the Caucasus from his residence in Tiflis, now Tbilisi, and had an army to enforce his authority. The new presidential envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District, Alexander Khloponin, will rule from Pyatigorsk — and he has no army. Nor does he have any money. Thus, the formation of the North Caucasus Federal District only created jobs for several thousand more bureaucrats.
If the Caucasus is poorly governed at the regional level, it stands to logic that the president of a republic needs to be changed. If the Caucasus is poorly governed ...