STAGNATION IS AN IMITATION OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY AGAINST
A BACKDROP OF GENERAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC DECLINE. IN ORDINARY LANGUAGE, THIS
MEANS THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T COPE - OR DOESN'T WANT TO COPE - WITH RUSSIA'S
GENERAL PROBLEMS, AND THERE IS NO ONE TO COMPEL IT OR NUDGE IT TOWARD MORE
ENERGETIC AND DECISIVE ACTION.
The other day, live on air at a certain respected radio station, the
no-less-respected chief editor of a highly respected Moscow newspaper spouted
some total nonsense. To quote: "Politics in Russia is becoming more quiet,
there are fewer crisis situations... The pace of politics here is now quite
comparable to that in Europe and the West; toward summer, there is virtually
no political news to report." The nonsense here lies in the fact that a
recent UN development report ranks Russia somewhere between Belize and
Malaysia, nowhere near the European and Western nations. According to a
combination of various indicators, Russia is ranked 55th on development
- but its "pace of politics" is actually comparable to that of some small
Scandinavian nation.
If the chief editor had wanted to say something clever, he might have
declared that the pace of politics clearly doesn't correspond to the real
situation in Russia. The pace of politics is all too steady and measured,
but we know what is really happening around the country. Just in case anyone
has lost sight of it, here are a few well-known facts. A summary, so to
speak.
According to the State Statistics Committee, Russia is somewhere between
40th and 50th in the world on life expectancy. And life expectancy continues
to fall. People are living shorter lives because they don't earn much money,
they get sick a lot, and often they simply don't have enough to eat. The
State Statistics Committee also dispassionately reports that 40 million
Russian citizens are living below the subsistence minimum. Logically, they
shouldn't be alive - and that's exactly what's happening: Russia's population
is steadily declining. Even Prime Minister Kasianov sounded the alarm recently:
soon there won't be enough workers, or enough tax-payers...
What more is there to say? Well, we're certainly still producing missiles.
However, when Forbes magazine recently published a list of the world's
500 largest companies, only four of them were Russian - and even those
were in natural resources. Gazprom - our flagship, the pride of our economy
- was ranked a pathetic 138th on this list. In economic terms, Russia (even
with its missiles) remains an appendage of the West, a source of raw materials.
President Putin admitted as much in his annual address to parliament. He
didn't use the term "appendage", preferring a euphemism, but everyone understood
what he meant.
Meanwhile, Russia maintains a leading position in global rankings on
crime and corruption levels. According to various international organizations,
Russia is among the world's ten most corrupt countries - along with Pakistan,
Bolivia, and Uganda. And Russia is still among the few countries in Europe
where there's a real war going on. Of course, we persist in coyly referring
to it as a counter-terrorist operation.
In other words, according to various rankings, lists, and surveys, Russia
is hovering somewhere between Latin America and Africa; while our "pace
of politics" is very close to that of Switzerland or Norway.
There has to be an explanation for such a discrepancy, some kind of
weighty reason, no matter how bizarre. After all, despite the summer heat,
there is still all kinds of political news in Russia. For example, two
substantial parties - Unity and Fatherland - almost fell into each other's
embrace yesterday. Isn't that news? And there are predictions that in autumn
Mr. Prusak - to spite the Union of Right Forces - will launch yet another
right-wing liberal party. If so, the Union of Right Forces and Prusak's
party are bound to unite in some kind of alliance or bloc this winter.
Political correspondents will have more to write about. The pace will be
European, while Russia continues to hover around the banana republics.
So what's the point? The point is that imitations of politics are a
waste of time. If a group calls itself a party, it ought to be trying to
win power. If it isn't willing or able to do so, then let it try to exert
some influence on public opinion or those in government. Otherwise, any
kind of "political stabilization", or politics at a European pace, is simply
stagnation.
Russia has already been through this, and it's familiar with the term
"stagnation". But it's only now, when the contradiction between politics
at a European pace and nationwide decline is so glaring, that we have a
definition of "stagnation". Stagnation is an imitation of political activity
against a backdrop of general socio-economic decline. In ordinary language,
this means the government can't cope - or doesn't want to cope - with Russia's
general problems, and there is no one to compel it or nudge it toward more
energetic and decisive action. In short, effective government is impossible
in a political vacuum. Why such a vacuum has formed in Russia at this point
is a different question. Either the government doesn't want any strong
opponents - or potential opponents are content with a well-fed, measured
imitation of politics - or our people are still too immature for civil
society.
Russia is not only familiar with stagnation; it is also familiar with
how to escape from stagnation. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, we got
off with a bloodless revolution, thank God. In fact, only radical measures
can overcome stagnation: if not a revolution, then a political upheaval;
if not an upheaval, then a coup, like in the banana republics. While stagnation-era
journalists find that "toward summer there is no political news to report",
such a summer often ends in an August. There's no need to explain what
"August" means in the context of Russian political traditions.
(Translated by Daria Brunova)
ко=мент