The Grim Reaper and the Whipping Boy: Why the Patrushevs Won’t Run the Kremlin
Despite his fearsome reputation as Putin’s top enforcer, Nikolai Patrushev’s and his son’s personal power base is too shallow to survive the potential death of the president.
Patrushev could come to power only in the case of some unforeseen catastrophic event. Moreover, for the Patrushev clan to seize power, they would need a charismatic frontman, such as Dmitry Rogozin. But even in the Putin catastrophe scenario, the Russian constitution calls for the sitting prime minister to take over until elections are held within ninety days. This was precisely the scenario (without the catastrophe, but rather Yeltsin’s sudden resignation on December 31, 1999) that brought Vladimir Putin to power. The current Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, is one of Putin’s most capable underlings. In our next and final article in this series, we will examine his candidacy and that of a few others.
Chris Monday is an Associate Professor of Economics at Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea.
Andy Kuchins is a Senior Fellow at the Center for the National Interest and Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.
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