The Administration of the President of the Russian Federation and Political Parties: institutional and political mechanisms of interaction (1991-1999)

The subject of the study is the process of transformation of the structures of the Presidential apparatus responsible for ensuring a continuous dialogue between the head of state and parliamentary parties and movements, most of which in the 1990s were adjacent to the opposition camp. The purpose of the work is to identify the key factors that influenced the formation and further diversification of departments of the presidential administration interacting with the Russian party-political spectrum in the crisis situation of the 1990s, based on the use of various sources (normative legal acts, analytical materials of political journalism, electronic resources). Problem-chronological, formal-legal, institutional, systemic and structural-functional approaches are used as the main methods.  The scientific novelty of the study lies in the almost complete absence of works examining the history of the formation and evolution of the Presidential Administration from the angle of the impact of the party-political and electoral factor on this institution. In the course of the conducted research, it was possible to establish that interaction with socio-political associations was not the main activity of the Presidential Administration in the 1990s. Only after the restoration of the Communist Party, as well as the election of the opposition Duma (1993), a department appeared in the Presidential Administration that oversaw interaction with the new parliamentary fronde. The main task of this structural unit (despite the frequent change of names, numbers and responsibilities) was its participation in the implementation of a common strategy for the political containment of anti-presidential (anti-communist, anti-reformist) forces in a crisis situation. At the same time, the activities of the department for working with parties in the context of the general anti-communist strategy of the 1990s were of an auxiliary (technological) nature, while the main political issues were resolved by the first persons of the opposing sides at a personal (behind-the-scenes-informal) level.

Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, State Duma, political parties, Yeltsin, Loginov, Stankevich, Satarov, Decree of the President, Russian socio-political center, elections