The issue of centre-periphery relations in the Russian Federation has always featured prominently in Moscow’s political debates. And these debates are heating up during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Not only does Russia have the vastest territory in the world but it also boasts of an extraordinary ethnic, cultural and religious diversity to the extent that it has sometimes faced secessionist and centrifugal movements.

How has the Kremlin’s empowerment of many local governments during the pandemic revamped the debate about regional autonomy? What are Russia’s most problematic “peripheries”?