№ 3 - 2006
Blyakher L.Ye., Ogurtzova T.L.
Adventures of Power Legitimacy in Russia, or Reviving of the Presumption of Culpability

Various grounds of power legitimization/delegitimization existing in Russian political space, are analyzed in the article, the process of competition between them and of their being driven off to the periphery of political life considered, those means researched, by which different types of power legitimization are “instilled” into Russia’s political space. As two main competing types of legitimization, the authors single out the “ontological” and the charismatic ones. According to their conclusion, with V.Putin’s advent to power, the “ontological” legitimacy traditional for Russia, happened to be pressed to the background by the legitimacy of a charismatic leader. Playing on the presence of different variants of legitimacy in society, as well as on the unfinished state of the “liberal project” of assigning a part of the privatization rent to the population, Putin appeared in the role of “people’s president”, and legitimacy of the regime is based today mainly on his charisma.