Russia’s rent seeking economy has been strongly impacted by the financial turmoil of 2008. As a result various political leaders’ discourses were espoused to promote social and economic change in the country. One of the most proeminent was the vibrant liberal plea of Dimitri Medvedev in favour of Modernization in his speech “Russia go!”. The project of modernization, the liberal conception of social and economic change, formulated by Medvedev, implied the empowerment of civil society and increasing competition in both the economy and the political arena.
However, dissenting views were promoted by Kremlin counsellors such as V. Surkov and favoured an “authoritarian view of modernization”, based on core Russian values such as religion, tradition and authority. In this context economic patriotism appears to be a key tool of Vladimir Putin’s public policies. This contribution intends to describe the model of development crafted and implemented in Contemporary Russia and more specifically to define the borders between the market and the State in the economy, but also between the domestic strategic sectors and competitive sectors in the economy.
