Russian "sovereign democracy" is no different from European and those who criticize it are doing so "with speculative goals," deputy chief of the presidential staff Vladislav Surkov told the world yesterday. His statement was the latest, and possibly final, warning to Western leaders that the Kremlin has absolutely no intention of discussing issues of Russian domestic policy at the St. Petersburg G8 summit.
Surkov, who appears in public extremely rarely, called together a group of foreign journalists yesterday. A source in the presidential executive administration told Kommersant that the meeting was part of preparations for the July summit and therefore only representatives of Russian information agencies were invited.
In spite of the declared international theme of the briefing, the main topic was Russian domestic policy and how the West sees that policy. Surkov stated that a double standard is applied when assessing the Russian political system and the Russian understanding of democracy is in no way different from the generally accepted European concept of it. "Our Russian model of democracy is called sovereign democracy,"" Surkov explained. "We want to be an open nation among other open nations and cooperate with them under fair rules, and not be managed from outside."
Surkov developed the topic of outside management in detail. He emphasized that "managed democracy" is far from what is being built up in Russia today, contrary to the opinion of some critics. Managed democracy is "a model of ineffective economic and political regimes managed from the outside and tied to certain centers of global influence," he explained. "I won"t mention the countries that we consider managed democracies, but we know which they are," he added. A "sovereign democracy," however, "does not differ from European democracy in its principle moments." "I hope in time our neighbors and partners will understand us," he said.
Surkov did not say how long it would take for Russia"s neighbors and partners to reach that understanding, but the Kremlin obviously thinks that July 15 would be on time. The Kremlin has good reason to expect "speculative goals" to emerge at the G8 summit. A great number of Western analysts say that Russia does not standards of democracy and its chairmanship if the G8 undermines the elite organization"s authority. That is, for example, the opinion of Freedom House, which ranked Russia among "not free" countries in 20005 and reported a deterioration of conditions in the first half of this year. The British-based Foreign Policy Centre, in a report prepared for the summit, declared that Russia is fit neither to chair the organization nor to be a member of it and calls on other group leaders to "insist that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin observe the international obligations he has taken on." Politicians are joining the chorus of disapproval. A group of U.S. senators recently sent an open letter to the G7 leaders urging them to express their protest against the antidemocratic policies of Russian authorities. "President Putin has turned from the path of democracy and is leading the country straight into an authoritarian regime," they wrote.
Garri Kasparov, leader of the United Civil Front, agrees that Surkov was intending to warn Western leaders away from the topic. "The tone taken by Surkov was polite," Kasparov conceded. Kremlin-linked political scientist Gleb Pavlovsky thought that "Anything can be discussed. But from the position of teacher-student, inquisitor-heretic, Russia will absolutely not discuss its political order with anyone."
Surkov also let it be known that the Kremlin was prepared to answer unpleasant questions if they come up. He told journalists that the president"s support for United Russia was fully in keeping with democracy (George W. Bush supports the Republican Party...). The Kremlin is not creating youth movements only supporting them "if they support us." The Kremlin does not work with television channels. The large state corporations are no threat to political forces sine the latter "are here today and gone tomorrow." Surkov"s announcement that Putin may become a member of the United Russia Party was news, but not unexpected. Analysts long ago suggested that Putin could become leader of the party after 2008, when it has taken full authority.
The Political Department
June 29, 2006
http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=686274
