The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Test of Russia’s Subnational State Capacity

This article is devoted to the study of subnational state capacity in Russia. The focus is on the end of the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic (2021). The study conducts a regression analysis, using the fulfillment of the social and economic requirements for regional authorities stipulated in the “May Decrees” of 2012 as the independent variable and transmission of the virus as the dependent variable. We find that subnational state capacity had an important impact on the spread of the pandemic: those regions that had greater success in implementing the requirements of the May Decrees were better able to curb the impact of the pandemic. In addition, we find that more authoritarian regions and regions with more experienced leaders were more successful in controlling the spread of the virus.