Just ran the Dmitri Panov piece past our new Deputat, home from Moscow for a few days.
Predictably, as a former trade minister and now special adviser on trade to the Gosduma, he took exception to some aspects and I'd like to summarize some of his main points from today.
1. That the Russian mentality is historically as different to the western as is the Chinese.
The Deputat disagrees and says that since 1998, great strides have taken place in 'rethinking' Russia's place in the world economy and putting Russia on a stable economic footing. There are western aspects to people's thinking now which might not have been there earlier. To that end, the probable new president is committed to this new Yedinaya Rossiya mentality, as are most of the newer deputats. A lot of people have done a lot of work trying to restructure the Russian economy to perform more effectively on the world stage and negative stereotypes are therefore ultimately counter-productive.
2. Russia has a different concept of democracy to the west's.
To an extent that's true. There is historical local colour in the complex relations between the different nationalities represented in the RF and these require balance. As yet, this country cannot adopt the parliamentary system of, say, Britain because it has a Tsarist tradition and the decades of Communism.
It has to be introduced carefully to allow the people time to adjust to the new realities and the infrastructure must move with each introduced change. Wholesale change too quickly resulted in 1998 and no one wants that to occur ever again, particularly given the western troubles about to bite over there.
So a reserved stance is necessary - watching, evaluating and deciding how much to introduce and how soon. These are not blandishments and you need to be in here at governmental level to understand what really is on the drawing board. Therefore it's unfortunate the way sections of the western media rush to the most negative assessment so quickly. It was particularly impressed on me today that Russia does listen to the criticisms and weighs them up - there is no collective blindness here - but it makers its decisions based on national interest nonetheless.
3. Russia has a newly aggressive stance towards the west [not specifically in the Panov article].
Just as in the west, there are hawks and doves and shades of opinion and there is most certainly a desire for Russia to be taken more seriously on the world stage - almost all are agreed on this - and trade delegations ffom here will continue to push Russian interests as you'd expect they would. But the prospect of a new cavalier attitude and a newly aggressive policy is not a general stance - where it has been highly publicized by the media, it's been more a case of stonewalling specific things certain countries are doing inside Europe to destabilize the sphere adjacent to Russia.
The overall mood and one even agreed by Mr. Zhirinovsky and other hardliners, is that Russia is a major player and cold war tactics have no place in where this country is going. Trade is the new language of diplomacy when it is allowed to breathe and not misrepresented.
Predictably, as a former trade minister and now special adviser on trade to the Gosduma, he took exception to some aspects and I'd like to summarize some of his main points from today.
1. That the Russian mentality is historically as different to the western as is the Chinese.
The Deputat disagrees and says that since 1998, great strides have taken place in 'rethinking' Russia's place in the world economy and putting Russia on a stable economic footing. There are western aspects to people's thinking now which might not have been there earlier. To that end, the probable new president is committed to this new Yedinaya Rossiya mentality, as are most of the newer deputats. A lot of people have done a lot of work trying to restructure the Russian economy to perform more effectively on the world stage and negative stereotypes are therefore ultimately counter-productive.
2. Russia has a different concept of democracy to the west's.
To an extent that's true. There is historical local colour in the complex relations between the different nationalities represented in the RF and these require balance. As yet, this country cannot adopt the parliamentary system of, say, Britain because it has a Tsarist tradition and the decades of Communism.
It has to be introduced carefully to allow the people time to adjust to the new realities and the infrastructure must move with each introduced change. Wholesale change too quickly resulted in 1998 and no one wants that to occur ever again, particularly given the western troubles about to bite over there.
So a reserved stance is necessary - watching, evaluating and deciding how much to introduce and how soon. These are not blandishments and you need to be in here at governmental level to understand what really is on the drawing board. Therefore it's unfortunate the way sections of the western media rush to the most negative assessment so quickly. It was particularly impressed on me today that Russia does listen to the criticisms and weighs them up - there is no collective blindness here - but it makers its decisions based on national interest nonetheless.
3. Russia has a newly aggressive stance towards the west [not specifically in the Panov article].
Just as in the west, there are hawks and doves and shades of opinion and there is most certainly a desire for Russia to be taken more seriously on the world stage - almost all are agreed on this - and trade delegations ffom here will continue to push Russian interests as you'd expect they would. But the prospect of a new cavalier attitude and a newly aggressive policy is not a general stance - where it has been highly publicized by the media, it's been more a case of stonewalling specific things certain countries are doing inside Europe to destabilize the sphere adjacent to Russia.
The overall mood and one even agreed by Mr. Zhirinovsky and other hardliners, is that Russia is a major player and cold war tactics have no place in where this country is going. Trade is the new language of diplomacy when it is allowed to breathe and not misrepresented.
Interesting -- probably a fairer assesment of Russia than most in the West give it.
ReplyDeleteI think however there will always be antipathy between Russia and the US and UK.
Personally I actually see Russia moving further and further towards what we like to call the west and soon it will be identical to us. Then they can invade other countries under the guise of anti terrorism and spreading democracy instaed of being accused or russian imperialism. WhooHoo. Wins all round.
ReplyDeleteThere are always a few which still believe in Marxism, state control, state bullying and no individual rights but enough of Gordo he won't be here much longer. You can't expect it to be an easy transition for the russians but to their credit it is happening.
Pssst, I've got a bridge I can sell you.
ReplyDeleteInteresting observations. I think he's probably right, on balance.
ReplyDeleteMy God.
ReplyDeleteWhat total BASTARDS.
Please remind me again, someone, anyone. What type of democracy are we discussing?
WILL A MODERN GUY FAWKS PLEASE SHOW HIMSELF. YOU HAVE OUR FULL SUPPORT
I don't think the Western world will EVER allow Russia a foothold in the free trade game.
ReplyDeleteDmitri has e-mailed me this answer which I'll now postbelow. He is not a blogger and does not seem au fait with the net:
ReplyDeleteI want to thanks James for his publishing of my post at his blog and for his good words about me.
I want to thank everybody who sent their opinions concerning to my post.
I have nothing else to say about this problem and I don’t know what type of government would be the best for Russia now.
I only know that the most attempts to introduce elements of western-type democracy in Russia turns out into their opposition: free election – into manipulations and garbling, federalism – into separatism, economic liberalism – into tax evasion and corruption.
And I’m sure that Russian people have to make efforts to find such type of government that would be appropriate to their mentality.
Interesting comments indeed, people and thanks from me too.
ReplyDelete