[billakay]

More than likely this centralization is temporary. Corrupt local institutions in Russia can rarely be fixed with new elections. The corruption tends to be so long lived and systemic that they usually will need outside (higher) oversight to root out and fix.

Don’t forget that a few years ago Putin suspended gubernatorial elections for the same reason (Constitutionally/legally, by the way, this isn’t an arbitrary process). It was indeed, temporary, and governors are back to being elected. Government in general has improved by leaps and bounds in Russia during the last 10 years. Municipalities are the final frontier, and many are already on notice.

[Olog-hai]

And if the same thing happened in the USA (which the Tenth Amendment prohibits), you would say . . . what?

Nice concern trolling. Centralization is OK because the RF constitution allows it; I see. Ever read Article 7 of that constitution, which declares Russia to be a “social state”?