Paper short abstract:

The paper explores how Russia’s new middle classes have been forging their relationships with the state characterized by “strategic autonomy.” It investigates how this orientation has been shaped by the neoliberal welfare restructuring and the configuration of Russia’s political economy.

Paper long abstract:

The paper follows the case of the new consumption policies in Russia introduced by the government in 2014 amid the economic downturn. It explores how the resilient reactions of the new middle classes to the new policies and the economic crisis can be construed as part of their broader relationships with the Russian state. These relationships have been forged within the new middle classes’ positionalities and biographical experiences and mediated their responses to state policies and politics. In particular, the analysis describes the tendency of the new middle classes to subjectively disentangle their lives from the larger developments in the country, which is conceptualized as their “strategic autonomy.” The paper emphasizes the importance of the post-soviet trajectories of the new middle classes for configuring this orientation. It specifically explores how these trajectories have been shaped by the neoliberal restructuring of the welfare system and the reconfiguration of Russia’s political economy as it became increasingly state-controlled within the framework of the authoritarian political regime. It is argued that the Russian state has been increasingly divesting itself from responsibility for the social reproduction of its citizens. The new middle classes, in their turn, have embraced self-reliance and individualized managing strategies while withdrawing their demands and expectations towards the state. The paper explores how these orientations came to be incorporated into the reproduction of Russia's authoritarian regime while also reflecting on the current developments related to the war and its economic consequences.