From Sovereigns to Servants: How the War Against Ukraine Reshaped Russia’s Elite (New Perspectives on Eastern Europe & Eurasia)

How did Putin co-opt Russia’s political and economic elites, ensuring no more than fitful resistance to the regime’s war on Ukraine?When Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the West slapped crushing sanctions on Russia.Many expected the country’s elite-prominent liberals and global businessmen-to defend their assets and cosmopolitan lifestyles by forcing Putin to stop the war.Instead, liberal-minded officials rewired the economy for war; corporations obeyed new rules; and only a handful resigned or spoke out.Why? Built on dozens of candid conversations with top Russian officials and businessmen since the mid-2010s, this book dissects their moral reasoning, and how their boundaries of ethical acceptability expanded over time, in line with the expectations of their superiors.Though the Russian upper class retained formal attributes of power, in reality it lost its agency, essentially becoming a mere instrument of governance.Alexandra Prokopenko illuminates the war’s pivot