The paper shows that the stable institutional confidence of the Russians to the power elite is mainly determined by the citizens’ attitude towards the figure of the president, whereas they consider the state government level (civil servants) to be actually impersonal. The author came to the conclusion that institutional confidence depends on the degree of media engagement, as we as on the activity of representatives of the state-power elite. At the same time, the interpersonal sphere of the Russians’ confidence still replaces the institutional level of confidence to a considerable extent. This situation forms certain challenges for the objective assessment of the effectiveness of the national elite by the population and, finally, creates risks for the legitimacy of the political system itself.

state-power elite, Institutional trust, public opinion, Russia

1. Abramov A.V. [Political elite as the highest political strata of society: approaches and research strategies]. In: Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo oblastnogo universiteta. Seriya: Istoriya i politicheskie nauki [Bulletin of Moscow Region State University. Series: History and Political Sciences], 2009, no. 4, pp. 142–145.
2. Bagdasaryan V.E. [On the actual mechanisms of recruiting political elites]. In: Problemnyi analiz i gosudarstvenno-upravlencheskoe proektirovanie [Problem analysis and public-management design], 2010, iss. 3, no. 3, pp. 119–121.
3. [V. Putin: five years of the third presidential term: Is the opinion of the citizens important for Putin?]. In: Zdrav.FOM [Zdrav.FOM]. Available at: http://fom.ru/Politika/13331 (accessed: 11.06.2017).
4. Gaman-Golutvina O.V. [Regional elites of Russia: composition and evolutionary trends (I)]. In: Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniya [Policy. Political Studies], 2004, no. 2, pp. 6–19.
5. [The main profession according to the opinion of the Russians]. In: Levada-tsentr [Levada-center]. Available at: http://www.levada.ru/old/04-07-2013/glavnye-professii-po-mneniyu-zhitelei-rossii (accessed: 11.06.2017).
6. Playa J.A., ed. Demokratiya. Vlast’. Elity: Demokratiya vs elitokratiya [Democracy. Power. Elites: democracy vs elitocracy]. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 2010. 216 p.
7. [The activities of state institutions]. In: VTSIOM [All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion]. Available at: https://wciom.ru/news/ratings/odobrenie_deyatelnosti_gosudarstvennyx_institutov/ (accessed: 11.06.2017).
8. Durkheim E. O razdelenii obshchestvennogo truda. Metod sotsiologii [On the division of social labor. The method of sociology]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1990. 576 p.
9. Salgiriev A., Betil’merzaeva M., Gaziev V., Soltamuradov M. [Institutional trust as an empirical indicator of the legitimacy of political elites]. In: TSentral’naya Aziya i Kavkaz [Central Asia and the Caucasus], 2016, iss. 19, no. 4, pp. 38–46.
10. Kosharnaya G.B. [Institutional and interpersonal confidence in consolidating the Russian society]. In: Vlast’ [Power], 2015, no. 9, pp. 125–129.
11. Mamlina E.A. [The role of public confidence in the institutional development of public administration]. In: Otvetstvennost’ vlasti pered grazhdanskim obshchestvom: mekhanizmy kontrolya i vzaimodeistviya: [The responsibility of government to the civil society: control and interaction]. Saratov, Volga Institute of management. P.A. Stolypin – the branch of RANEPA Publ., 2013, pp. 255–259.
12. Mareeva S.V. [Institutional trust and the effectiveness of institutions in difficult situations: in the opinion of Russians]. In: Terra Economics, 2015, iss. 13, no. 3, pp. 124–135.
13. [The approval of the authorities] In: Levada-tsentr [Levada-center]. Available at: http://www.levada.ru/indikatory/odobrenie-organov-vlasti/ (accessed: 11.06.2017).
14. Orlov I.A. [Institutional confidence as the basis of interaction between regional elites and society]. In: Naukovedenie: Internet-zhurnal [Science: Internet Magazine], 2010, no. 3, pp. 17–18.
15. [The personal composition of the government of the Russian Federation]. In: Pravitel’stvo Rossiiskoi Federatsii: ofitsial’nyi sait [The government of the Russian Federation: official site]. Available at: http://government.ru/gov/persons/#vice-premiers (accessed: 11.06.2017).
16. Petukhov V.V. [Bureaucracy and power]. In: Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological research], 2006, no. 3, pp. 9–15.
17. Prezident Rossii: ofitsial’nyi sait [The President of Russia: official site]. Available at: http://kremlin.ru/structure/administration/members (accessed: 11.06.2017).
18. [The leadership of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation]. In: Sovet Federatsii Federal’nogo Sobraniya Rossiiskoi Federatsii: ofitsial’nyi sait [The Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation: official site]. Available at: http://www.council.gov.ru/structure/administration (accessed: 11.06.2017).
19. Savin L.V., Fedorchenko S.N., Shvarts O.K. Setecentricheskie metody v gosudarstvennom upravlenii. [Network-centric methods in public administration]. Moscow, Sam poligrafist Publ., 2015. 146 p.
20. [The Council of the Federation. Attitude to the proposals to reform the Council of Federation] In: Zdrav.FOM [Zdrav.FOM]. Available at: http://fom.ru/politika/10426 (accessed: 11.06.2017).
21. [The decree of the President of the Russian Federation from 31/12/2005 no. 1574. “On the register of the federal state civil service posts”]. In: Konsul’tantPlyus: spravochno-pravovaia sistema [ConsultantPlus: legal-reference system]. Available at: http://www.consultant.ru/cons/cgi/online.cgi?req=doc&base=LAW&n=211852&rnd=263249.859528653&dst=100033&fld=134#0 (accessed: 11.06.2017).
22. Churakova O. [The Russians don’t like the power on the whole but have confidence to certain politicians]. In: Vedomosti [Vedomosti], 2016, October 10.
23. Shorina I.N. Institutsional’noe doverie kak uslovie stabil’nosti sovremennogo rossiiskogo obshchestva: dis. ... kand. sotsiol. nauk [Institutional confidence as a condition of stability of modern Russian society: PhD thesis in Sociological sciences]. Penza, 2013. 162 p.
24. Shugunova Z.Z. Politicheskaya dinamika sovremennykh rossiiskikh parlamentskikh partii: avtoref. dis. ... kand. polit nauk [The political dynamics of contemporary Russian parliamentary parties: PhD thesis in Political sciences]. Rostov-on-Don, 2004. 141 p.
25. Ekspertnyi opros “Sotsial’naya elita Rossii” “Laboratorii Kryshtanovskoi” [Expert poll «Social elite of Russia»«Kryshtanovskaya Laboratories»]. Available at: https://aftershock.news/?q=node/444314 (accessed: 11.06.2017).
26. [The Elite of Russia]. In: Levada-tsentr [Levada-center]. Available at: http://www.levada.ru/2016/12/12/elita-rossii (accessed: 11.06.2017).
27. Yakovleva T.N., Tyrnova N.A. [The current political elite in public opinion of the Russians]. In: Kaspiiskii region: politika, ekonomika, kul’tura [Caspian region: politics, economy, culture], 2013, no. 1, pp. 208–218.