“In Russia’s heavily bureaucratic and top-down political system, that lack of imperative from the Kremlin has led to inconsistencies in implementing anti-pandemic efforts, with some regions allowing citizens to openly flaunt quarantine measures as others tighten up with police checkpoints and electronic tracking systems,” Henry Foy and Max Seddon write for the Financial Times.

“Putin’s supreme power position makes him the key to understanding the pandemic’s political impact. But its impact on the core institutions of the Russian state, especially the national security bureaucracy, is just as important. The ‘power ministries’—the intelligence services, the military, the police, and the defense-industrial establishment—are likely to shape the future of Russian politics,” writes CFR’s Stephen Sestanovich.