Party Politics in Putin’s era: the case of United Russia

In the existing literature on party politics in Russia and the post-Soviet space and, in comparative terms, the paper aims to analyze the dynamics of party and regime dominance during the Putin’s era. Using a theoretical framework to understand the role of ruling parties in modern political systems and then applied to explore the Russian case, the research aims, at first, to describe both the emergence of United Russia as a major nationwide structure and its political role in the process of consolidation and persistence of authoritarian rule. Moreover, being the party a key factor in the outcome of the Russian political regime, it is still necessary to understand to what extent the role of Putin has been effective and its leadership has influenced its electoral performance and parliamentary set. The election of Dmitrii Medvedev as President of the Russian Federation in 2008 made difficult to identify the clear cut-off point for the Putin’s leadership as well as the institutional constraints of a super-presidential system has to be considered. At the eve of the next parliamentarian elections Russia’s ruling parliamentary party, which has always based its policies on supporting Vladimir Putin, will not ask the president to allow them use his image in the 2016 elections campaign, in order to protect the president from possible damage to his political rating. Which are the main effects of this new strategy on the electoral success of United Russia? Is still the party of power the Putin’s political machine? Which perspectives on the presidentalization of party politics nowadays in post authoritarian regimes?