國立臺灣大學政治科學論叢

Since the resignation of Medvedev as prime minister in January 2020, and the holding of the constitutional referendum in July 2020, experts have agreed that this marks the beginning of a new era in Russia. In theory, Putin could stay in power until 2036. However, by amending the constitution and reorganizing the government, these moves specifically show that Putin’s power networks (Putin’s sistema) are facing a crisis: the power elite groups controlled by Putin in the past have established their own private networks independently. Putin has also gradually moved away from the old power elites, choosing to use young and easy-to-control technocrats instead. Russia is a network state. The Russian-style networks (blat) and power networks (sistema) have a huge impact on the development and structure of power elites under the Putin regime. Therefore, this article first analyzes Russia’s unique informal networks (blat) and power networks (sistema). Afterwards, the author analyzes the structure of the power elites under Putin with the elite network matrix and reviews the development and transformation of Russian power elite groups from 2000 until now.