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GAUNTLET OPINIONS NOVEMBER 06.08 11<br />
Seeking stability in Russia<br />
Strong cultural sense may help find firm ground in politics<br />
Ivan Nechepurenko<br />
<strong>Gauntlet</strong> Opinions<br />
We Russians desperately<br />
need stability in our<br />
politics today. We<br />
have a very popular president<br />
and prime minister, but we still<br />
lack a stable, legitimate and overall<br />
efficient constitutional system.<br />
Corruption and social ignorance<br />
are still widespread. <strong>The</strong> current<br />
economic crisis is going to be a real<br />
test to the stability of the political<br />
system.<br />
Nevertheless, in contrast to<br />
its weakness in politics and economics,<br />
Russia has a core cultural<br />
and intellectual strength that is a<br />
great source of national pride. Our<br />
culture sustained us even during<br />
the Soviet terror. If only we could<br />
achieve moderation in our political<br />
discourse, we would have every<br />
reason to be optimistic about the<br />
stability of our government and<br />
the future of our country.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is not much evidence of<br />
moderate political discourse in<br />
Russia. Despite the great success<br />
of the team of Vladimir Putin<br />
and Dmitry Medvedev in public<br />
opinion, the Russian media have<br />
become prey to extremes. <strong>The</strong><br />
media give us either the luscious<br />
propaganda image promoted by the<br />
state TV channels or the intolerable,<br />
shrill, self-serving, unqualified<br />
complaints made by the opposition.<br />
Everyone in the press is either<br />
in love with the present state of<br />
affairs or bitterly critical of them. In<br />
addition, the Western press is full<br />
of criticism of Russia — especially<br />
of Putin and Medvedev — but this<br />
criticism is self-evidently incompetent<br />
and biased. Russian people<br />
on the whole do not argue much<br />
about politics. Most Russians are<br />
apathetic and others merely capitalize<br />
on the dangerous instability<br />
of Russian politics.<br />
In the midst of this crisis, let us<br />
try to find a middle ground. Let<br />
us try an unemotional, thoughtful<br />
consideration of Russia in the 21st<br />
century. We have bungled political<br />
analysis and are not able to make<br />
any kind of adequate prediction,<br />
not to mention suggestions. Let<br />
us put aside political speculation<br />
for a moment and turn instead to<br />
the cultural strength that is our<br />
birthright. Our culture should be<br />
the basis for a broad, independent<br />
and careful analysis of Russia’s<br />
political and economic positions.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se aspects should all be analyzed<br />
together and the tone of this<br />
analysis should be moderate.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are good cultural grounds<br />
for constructing a moderate analysis.<br />
Every educated Russian, no<br />
matter what their attitude towards<br />
the Putin government, is proud of<br />
Russian culture. We all know that<br />
Russia has an immense tradition.<br />
Russian music and literature are<br />
among the best in the world. To<br />
put our situation in the terminology<br />
of Nobel Prize winning author<br />
V. S. Naipaul, Russia has a national<br />
centre. Our culture creates a centre<br />
for us, unites us as a nation and<br />
pushes us forward. Every Russian<br />
feels a split between our great<br />
cultural achievement on the one<br />
hand and our country’s recent<br />
economic and political chaos, on<br />
the other.<br />
Further, despite our problems,<br />
Russia has come a long way from<br />
the totalitarian and criminal<br />
regime of the Soviet Union. Our<br />
borders are open, censorship is<br />
existent but lenient. We have<br />
had economic success. <strong>The</strong> Putin<br />
government has shared our vast oil<br />
wealth among the majority of the<br />
population. Today there are half as<br />
many poor people in Russia as there<br />
were in 1999. <strong>The</strong> average income<br />
has risen from $70 to almost $750<br />
per month.<br />
No one denies that there are<br />
severe challenges. Russia still has<br />
some fundamental problems in its<br />
social and economic spheres and<br />
these problems are very dangerous<br />
now and could be even more<br />
dangerous in the future. Some<br />
people feel nostalgia for the Soviet<br />
Union and its military glory. It was<br />
a catch-22. Once people became<br />
more confident in their financial<br />
situation, they began to be nostalgic<br />
of the great Soviet Empire and the<br />
unity of the Soviet people.<br />
For these reasons, Russia now<br />
needs to develop a strong, reasonable,<br />
moderate political and<br />
economic discourse, not tied to<br />
personalities. Russia’s vast cultural<br />
achievement should provide<br />
the support to this moderate discourse<br />
and our present economic<br />
success should also play some<br />
part. <strong>The</strong> whole of Russia would<br />
benefit from a moderate discourse.<br />
Moderation will be the true guarantor<br />
of the constitution and the<br />
whole system of the government.<br />
A moderate discourse in the press<br />
would encourage our government<br />
to moderate itself.
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