Federal administrative elite of Russia: features of reproduction of career characteristics

The article considers the dynamics of career characteristics of the Russian federal administrative elite. The empirical basis of the study is the biographical databases of highranking officials of 2013 and 2024. The study allowed us to draw a number of conclusions. In personal terms, the elite has been mainly renewed, while among the leadership of the PA and executive bodies directly subordinate to the head of state, personal reproduction is comparatively more pronounced. On the contrary, the socio-structural (career) characteristics of the elite, in general, demonstrate a tendency towards reproduction. Such indicators of its professional origin as the level of militarization and the share of people from the federal and regional administrations are quite stable. The federal parliament, as before, plays an insignificant role as a supplier of administrators, and the share of direct descendants from business has also changed little. In general, we can talk about a more or less established pattern of recruitment of the federal administrative elite during the rule of V. V. Putin, which indicates its institutionalization. The socio-structural reproduction of the elite was facilitated by the stability of the fundamental characteristics of the socio-political context of its formation, which largely determines the possibilities of an elite career, the availability and attractiveness of positions of power. At the same time, some changes in the career characteristics of both the elite as a whole (for example, the role of private firms weakened and the importance of state-owned companies as direct suppliers of key officials increased) and its segments occurred. In part, these trends may be associated with the gradual departure from the elite of personnel who first occupied prominent administrative posts in the late 1990s – first half of the 2000s. Changes in the political and economic context in connection with the Special military operation and international sanctions may also influence the career characteristics of the elite, although still to a limited extent.