R U S S I A ’ S IMPERIAL ENDEAVOR AND

Using the conceptual tools of analysis developed by the editors in The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes (CEU Press, 2020), the authors discuss how the war is redrawing the geopolitical map as we know it, the reactions to the invasion by ENDEAVOR AND Western countries, Russia’s post-Soviet neighbors and China, and the possibilities and challenges of Ukraine and Moldova to integrate into the EU. [...] The role of chaebols in Russia, and especially Rostec, is greatly increasing in the context of the current protracted war and difficult confrontation with the West, as they are relied on to ensure the smooth functioning of the now-sanctioned military-industrial complex, of which Rostec is the core. [...] This is what happened in the case of Zinichev (who first became deputy director of the FSB, and then minister of emergency situations) and in the case of Mironov (who moved in 2021 to the post of assistant to the president in charge of personnel issues of the military and security forces). [...] Both play a largely symbolic role, on the one hand ensuring stability and continuity, and, on the other hand, allowing the Kremlin to keep full control over the judiciary, either through them or directly through the Commission for the Preliminary Review of Candidates for the Position of Federal Judges under the President, whose work is controlled by Maxim Travnikov, the head of the Office of the P. [...] According to rumors, he is being considered as a candidate for the position of chairman of the Accounts Chamber, vacated with the departure of Alexei Kudrin in November 2022.30While the political managers at the very top are virtually irremovable, the replacement of leaders at the next level sharply intensified following the outbreak of the war.