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BORIS NEMTSOV: A TRUE RUSSIAN PATRIOT DAVID J. KRAMER It is hard to believe that a year has gone by since Boris Nemtsov was shot and killed just yards from [...]

Since Vladimir Putin took over the presidency, analysts have highlighted the large numbers of siloviki--those with experience in the military and security agencies--who have been recruited into government service. Two political scientists investigate this trend by reexamining previously published findings and using an original data set. Claims of the 'FSB-ization of power' under Putin and an underappreciated trend in elite formation under Putin--the increasing presence of business representatives in the government and society at large--are considered. The article examines the implications of its findings for Russia's future political development, particularly in terms of stability and democracy.

Globalization has sparked renewed interest in the diffusion of ideas and norms across boundaries. Although much work has focused on diffusion at the macro-level and on the groups that transmit ideas, few researchers have studied the cognitive processes of political elites as they weigh the merits of various foreign-inspired models. Drawing on a series of original, in-depth interviews with Russian parliamentarians and high-ranking bureaucrats conducted in 1996, this paper makes two contributions to the study of individual-level borrowing in the Russian context. First, the openness of Russian elites to foreign borrowing is investigated; despite the public rhetoric about Russia's uniqueness, a substantial number of Russian elites are willing to borrow from foreign experience--particularly from models of European welfare capitalism. Second, three explanations of why policy-makers prefer to emulate some countries rather than others are tested--because they are similar to their own country either geographically, historically or culturally (comparability); because they have geostrategic prominence (prestige); or because they excel economically and/or politically (performance). Comparability and prestige are found to be of lesser importance than performance to Russian elites when considering the merits of various foreign models. Given that Russia closely approximates a most-likely case for validating explanations stressing comparability, this suggests that the array of foreign ideas that could become part and parcel of Russia's transition process is probably wider than is usually assumed. It also implies that, in general, the regional dimension of diffusion plays a smaller role than previously theorized.

This article discusses elite interviewing in the post-communist world. The authors provide suggestions on how to conduct an elite interview, discussing selecting an appropriate sample design, gaining access to respondents, establishing rapport, and developing a questionnaire. j

Eugene Huskey, Presidential Power in Russia. London and Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1999, xii + 295 pp., $64.95 h/b, $24.95 p/b. THE FIRST IN A SERIES devoted to understanding the [...]

SINCE RUSSIA'S EMERGENCE AS AN INDEPENDENT STATE considerable disagreement has arisen among both Western and Russian scholars over whether a transformation in the political elite has occurred. Representing the prevailing [...]