The anatomy of the new fascist regime in Russia

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1060586X.2022.2062657
Maria Snegovaya & Kirill Petrov (2022) Long Soviet shadows: the nomenklatura ties of Putin elites, Post-Soviet Affairs, 38:4, 329-348, DOI: 10.1080/1060586X.2022.2062657

We find that the percentage of elite descendants from the Soviet nomenklatura, which during the Soviet times comprised only 1–3% of the population, remained quite stable between 2010 and 2020, constituting approximately 60% of Russia’s top ruling class. These findings, 30 years after the transition, signal a pronounced continuity between elites in the Soviet and Putin regimes.

Ironically, where elite change does occur in Putin’s system, it primarily happens through the influx of elite members with siloviki backgrounds. The nomenklatura and siloviki samples only partially intersect, and those with strictly nomenklatura ties significantly exceed the share of siloviki. In other words, Putin-era elites may be conceptualized as a mix of individuals with nomenklatura ties and siloviki backgrounds.