Russian question

Andrei Piontkovsky / www.grani.ru (excerpt from the article)

The problem of Putin in Russia is not that he is standing “one foot in Russia’s cold war past.” His problem is that he got bogged down with his both feet and both hands in the thievery of his hangers-on, unprecedented even by Russia’s historical standards.

Quite the opposite, these accusations of adherence to the old cold war philosophy and the neo-imperialist stance only lend our national leader the strategic respectability, give him status of a great statesman and prolong the decay of the regime of anti-national kleptocracy that has no future. He is thirsting for these accusations; he provokes them and revels in them.

What Obama failed to say in Moscow

Vladimir Abarinov / www.grani.ru

The speech that Barack Obama delivered in Moscow was announced as the continuation of the speech he made in Prague and Cairo, yet another evangel of "good news” from Washington, yet another "new page” in the US relations with the outside world. Either it was decided in the last moment that the main part of the trip would be his speech in Ghana, or Obama’s advisors could not feel the firm ground in the relations with Moscow, but the speech he made in the Russian school of economics paled in comparison to specimen of president’s eloquence in other capitals of the world.

And the reaction to this speech was also lukewarm: after applauding to Gorbachev's address and smiling to Mr. Obama’s standing joke about the Moscow weather (Obama repeated it several times during his visit), the students showed no attitude to the words of the orator. US president might as well deliver a speech in the empty hall.

So why did he talk a lot about what is interesting to America and hurried through the issues that resonate with the Russian audience? The answer is simple: he has no clear task with respect to Russia. He does not know what to want from Russia.

When standing at the Berlin Wall Ronald Reagan said to Gorbatchev: “Mr. Gorbatchev, break this wall!”, he knew what he wanted from Gorbatchev. And when he passed to the Soviet leader the list of political prisoners, demanding to free them, he also knew his objective. And when Reagan made a speech at the Moscow State University, he quoted the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova's verse about the line of people waiting to pass the food to their arrested relatives, and he also knew that these words would strike the right chord in Russia.

But Mr. Obama does not seem to know. His speechwriters were probably breaking their heads to find a safe citation from the Russian poet Pushkin and finally they came up with a quotation about the need to have inspiration in geometry as well as in poetry. Even in his interview to the Russian independent newspaper “Novaya gazeta” Obama didn’t risk saying anything significant and unambiguous about the new trial of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev and the murder of the journalist Politkovskaya. Instead, we heard about his support of the "courageous initiative of president Medvedev to strengthen the rule of law in Russia" and that he “agrees with president Medvedev, who said that freedom is better than the lack of freedom.” It is likely that these issues were not discussed at all during negotiations.

Does Mr. Obama really believe that the bright future that he painted can be built hand in hand with Putin/Medvedev’s regime? Probably not. In his speech he addressed the young generation of Russian politicians who will replace the current two rulers after they play enough with power. But until this does happen, the only option left is to press the reset button in a hope that the system will start working by itself.

source: grani.ru

Usurpers of power in Russia and the uprising of the bourgeoisie

Edward Limonov / www.grani.ru (excerpt from the article)

To hell with Mr. Obama! He came and went again, and our problems remain.

To begin with, we have one shameful secret: this country is occupied by a group of persons, and for almost a decade this group of usurpers own Russia. This group is so narrow that it is hard to regard it as either a social class, or a political party. It cannot be regarded as a fraternity, even though its core is made up of natives of one city. Still this group is much narrower than a fraternity. These people are more or less colleagues, who worked together in the city government of Saint-Petersburg in the 90’s, and colleagues of their colleagues.

Their story is very much similar to the story of the last century of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, when any lucky servant of the sultan who managed to get closer suddenly became his right-hand man and then brought all his relatives and colleagues to the palace.

Sultan Yeltsin needed a "firm hand" and he brought in a certain Mr. P. by the back door. This Mr. P. one by one dragged inside all the people he used to work with.

For more than a decade we are all condemned to live under their rule. Their habits, beliefs, education level weigh upon us. Their understanding of the "order" as the policy of transfer of power inside the group led us to the situation when there are no new ideas and no new people at the top levels of government. As if we were forcibly made to live in only one season – a gloomy and chilly autumn. And where is our spring and summer?

Ten years of the same people in power is disgusting. Worse is only twenty years of the same rule.

Sultan Yeltsin was the first to learn the art of "winning” the elections. He was immoral in the most innocent manner, as could be immoral any talentless Soviet construction boss who made it to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Besides, the job of "winning" was mainly done by newfangled merry political spin-doctors.

Since then the power has been successfully "winning" all elections, and chairmen of the Central Election Commission were afterwards one by one awarded with cozy ambassador jobs in countries with beautiful landscapes and a moderate climate. Fat managers of federal TV channels do not get appointed as ambassadors, but I am sure that they are also rewarded in full.

The sultan has long left the throne and then he died. His right-hand man became a sultan himself and served two terms. Then he put on the throne a smart young man, who was brought up in the traditions of the group. He was “chosen”. Heaven knows on what merits he has been appointed! Maybe it is the lack of these merits that did the job.

Our common shameful secret is that these people are aware of the fact that they are unworthy of their status, that they have neither talent, nor popularity, nor any other quality to be there (they do not even look good!). And we know that they do not deserve the power they have been given. They deceived their way into the power; they sneaked to the throne somewhere from the kitchen. They did not even conquer power, if you remember well! But how arrogant they are, sitting there for more than ten years! And we do not drive them away.

How many great projects were not taken forward during this time! How many souls burnt with these projects inside! How many destinies are broken! How many opportunities were lost!

Furthermore, these people in power are rather lazy, as befits any incidental strangers. They tapped all the resources and built nothing. Situation in the Caucasus is still a mess, prisons are still overcrowded and the system of justice is rotten. From top to bottom, life in Russia is full of lies. The impression is that the Russian rulers sleep twelve hours a day, glug vodka eight hours a day and then sit for four hours in front of TV cameras. I am afraid that this impression is not wrong.

Their fault is enormous, but our fault is no less huge. We are to blame because we haven't driven them away. That we are too meek and too faint-hearted to protest. Although, most of the blame must be put on our bourgeois heroes.

source: grani.ru