Is the Russian elite apathy possible?

The article analyzes the possibility and correctness of applying the term of social apathy to the current Russian administrative elites. To date, there is no consensus in the expert community on this subject. Two points of view dominate: according to the first one, the general mood in society cannot but affect the elites. An alternative point of view proceeds from the fact that a state of apathy, which implies a low value of activity, cannot be inherent in elites, since the managerial, career, tactical tasks and work schedule they solve do not imply the possibility of a decrease in efficiency, because this directly affects their positions. The authors single out unresolved conflicts that increase the risks of apathy among the elites. Among them are the peculiarities of consuming news from classical and new media; the contradiction between encouraging apathy in society and the need to recruit activity-oriented persons to the elite; the importance of demonstrating elements of the “people's agenda” in current activities; the weakness of the system for publicly evaluating the results of work on key projects in recent years; a general decline in the status of civilian elites. The authors also analyze possible consequences of the apathy of the elites.