The return of authoritarian rule to Russia has been widely seen as one of the characteristics of the presidency of Vladimir Putinches An important element of this has been Putin's construction of the so-called "power vertical", the integration of leading positions in the politico-administrative hierarchy into a consolidated political machine with the presidential administration at its head. This book looks at an important aspect of this, the distribution of power in the regions. Focusing on the two questions of federalism and business power, the essays in this book chart the changing patterns of power in the Russian Federation since the early 1990s, and analyze the implications of this for Russia's future.