Announced in 2018, V. Putin's “decisive breakthrough” is now stuck

Over the last 10 years, the journal “Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast” has been presenting articles on relevant problems of Russian society and government in its “Editorial” section once in every two months. Based on expert opinions of a wide range of scientists, sociologists, economists, political and social activists, and a set of factual data, acquired using sociological and statistical tools, a long-term monitoring of the public administration efficiency has been conducted, which allowed assessing the current situation in the country in real time. In Editor-in-Chief’s previous article, published in the journal “Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast” no.4, we focused on the results of the all-Russian vote on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, held on July 1, 2020. Amended Constitution significantly strengthens social obligations of the government, and it is aimed at the protection of Russia’s national interests. Besides, the nature of the new Constitution turned out to be relevant in terms of civilizational challenges, because common practice of border shutdowns during COVID-19 epidemic forms new outlines of the world order that strengthen a value of national interests and weaken globalization values, which have been dominant over the last 50 years. Nethertheless, many experts noted after the all-Russian vote that the consolidation of society around constitutional amendments did not work out. The results of our analysis, conducted according to data of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, showed that the share of people, who voted against amendments, exceeded average national numbers in 47 Russian regions out of 86; it was even higher in some oblast centers. Its main reason is people’s disbelief in a desire and abilities of the ruling elites to implement election promises of the President. This situation is primarily caused by a lack of noticeable positive changes in the dynamics of the level and quality of life in the last ten years. In order to enhance this topic, we decided to analyze some key aspects of the whole process of the formation of the new post- Soviet statehood. The President himself initiated and publically announced this reform back in 1999, and he has been controlling its implementation ever since.