The Russia Conundrum

Lenin’s intolerance, his contempt for freedom, the fanaticism of his faith, his cruelty towards his enemies, were the qualities that brought victory to his cause … and Russia followed him – willingly at first, trustfully – along a merry intoxicating path lit by the burning estates of the landowners. Then she began to stumble, to look back, ever more terrified of the path stretching before her. But the grip of his iron hand leading her onwards grew tighter and tighter … While the West was fertilised with freedom, Russia’s evolution was fertilised by the growth of slavery.

Vladimir Putin has inherited and exploited the form of governance established by his tsarist and socialist predecessors. Like the Mongols, like Catherine and like Lenin, he too wields autocratic power, arguing that the Yeltsin years of botched democracy are proof that Russia needs strong rule from above. But our nation’s centuries of autocracy have been paralleled by another current of thought. Russia’s so-called Westernisers have argued for the rejection of despotism and a decisive turn towards Western values – European-style constitutionalism and social justice. It was a view that has found plenty of support among the Russian intelligentsia and is a tradition to which I count myself an adherent today.

It is true that the model of governance in Russia for almost a millennium has been autocracy, albeit with fairly powerful local self-government that was not destroyed until the time of Stalin. But this does not mean Russia cannot change; she is not condemned to remain forever outside the community of free, democratic nations.

Putin is the latest in the line of Russian autocrats and there are indications that he will be the last. The world is changing; no country – not even North Korea – can hide its archaic practices from the eyes of the world. Where Soviet leaders once retreated behind a wall of secrecy, keeping their abuses hidden and their people in ignorance, Russia today has been swept by the winds of transparency. The outside world can see in, and the Russian people have more chance to see out. Putin’s response has been to increase internal repression, crack down on opposition, and crush individuals and businesses that don’t toe the line. It is the behaviour of a leader who knows he is surrounded by inimical forces, retreating deeper into his bunker, ordering his timorous generals to go out and beat back the unstoppable enemy advance.

Putin uses the myth that the Yeltsin years are proof that a liberal economic order and democracy are not feasible for Russia and that only he and his hardline model of centralised autocracy can keep Russia safe. But justice is the basic moral imperative for successful government and independent polls have shown that most Russians believe the Kremlin leadership is corrupt, motivated not by love for Russia but by self-enrichment. On a moral level, the regime is disowned even by its usual supporters, a significant indicator that real political change is imminent. It is no longer ‘stability and continuity at all costs’ that the Russian people crave; our country yearns for reform.

According to human rights experts, as many as one in six of Russia’s entrepreneurs have been put on trial; prisons hold thousands of them, many of them victims of fabricated legal suits, facilitated by a corrupt criminal justice system. The Levada Center think tank calculates that, in any given year, more than 15 per cent of Russians are forced to bribe bureaucrats and other agents of the state. The country is ruled by Putin’s personal clique, elected by no one and devoid of any legal authority; parliament is run by one party, the United Russia Party of Vladimir Putin, which anyone who wants to be properly assured of their business’s future has to support in some way or other. Such constraints have discouraged the most enterprising members of society, depressed economic activity and filled a vital cohort of the population with resentment for the regime.

The Russian Federation needs new areas of development; it needs modern infrastructure, cheap and fast transport links, and modern industry. None of this is possible unless Russia emerges from the isolation it has been pushed into by the current regime. The resources to achieve all this exist; they simply need to be utilised in a rational manner, rather than bartered for the loyalty of the crooks and cronies of the Kremlin.

In March 2021, I was in London, exiled from my country and waiting by the telephone. It had been a couple of hours since I had last heard from Moscow and I was getting anxious. When the fate of your homeland is at stake, living in exile is an ordeal.