Abstract
<jats:p>The article analyzes interdependence of Russian politics’ institutional order and political engagement of Russian citizens. One of the goals of research conducted by the Department of Comparative Political Research of the Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS was to reconstruct the existing political order from surveys data on citizens’ perceptions of politics and power, their place and opportunities in political process, and from information on practices that respondents adopt and on the sets of norms and values these practices represent. Since the majority of Russian citizens do not engage in any forms of political activity (apart from electoral), interest in politics and participation in political discussions were used to gauge “basic” level of political engagement. The article demonstrates the affinity between the attitudes of politically engaged respondents and an ideal type of modern politics, while non-engaged respondents continually reproduce the relations of dominance. However, the level of political engagement does not impact the prevalent perception of existing institutional environment’s “hostility”. The institutional environment restrains or even blocks citizens’ political activity, thereby hindering political transformation.</jats:p>