Les pouvoirs locaux dans les régions russes du Centre-Terres noires. Transition ou opposition ?

A year after the failed putsch of August 1991, what kind of power system has been established in Russia? This study of changes in local power in five neighbouring regions (Kursk, Lipetsk, Tambov, Voronez, Belgorod) which all belong to the same economic zone throws light on an amazing continuity with the past. New local, ostensibly "democratic" institutions have been set up in the region and "liberal" free market reforms have been introduced. Yet despite these changes power still remains in the hands of the former nomenklatura. Moreover this has occured with the tacit approval and support of the Moscow authorities. Furthermore the way power is exercised harks back to the authoritarian methods and means which characterized the Soviet system