Guardian on Putin's speech

[Boris Dagaev]

> An important part of democracy is how money is spent and that no one is hungry ...
> if somebody had told me in 1991 that I would be writing smth like this in 2007, I
> probaly would have spat in the person's face.

Please hold off with the spitting. Aren't ideas and principles what
we, Russian intelligentsia, trade in? Of course, we enjoy talking
about protecting our cherished ideals from whatever existential threat
that may loom distantly (a safe distance is of particular importance
here), but don't we sell them? Reluctantly. But eventually. Proudly
not to the highest bidder, but to a convenient and acceptably
comfortable one. There is nothing new in your conversion. Simply put,
you have finally found out your price.

Now you may spit.


On 2/24/07, Elena Gapova <e.gapova at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Dear Philippe,
>
> I agree, that there is room for comment. I am not an expert on Russian
> politics or a supporter of Putin (nor a Russian citizen), but there is a
> reason why so many people in Russia do support him (and they really do, and
> "brainwashing" does not seem to be the reason).
>
> It seems that most of the things you mention (dedovshchina, or oligarchs, or
> murders of businessmen) started long before Putin - during that period of
> the postcommunist "redistribution of property", when "democracy" was full,
> complete, overwhlming etc. One could say or write or proclaim whatever - and
> had problems with how to put food on the table, and senior citizens were
> looking for bread in the garbage bins, and we saw homeless children for the
> first time since WWII. There was as much freedom as there could be, and it
> was called democracy - but that time and regime was shavefully, enormously,
> unbelievably inhuman - and for this very reason, undemocratic. That's what
> is ususally meant when people say, that they have been fed up with
> "democracy". This phrase has a very concrete meaning. It does not mean that
> the Russian people do not want to be the masters of their own destinies, but
> rather that for millions (really, millions) that was the time of losing, not
> gaining, control over their own lives.
>
> It seems that with Putin things are becoming a tiny bit better, and that he
> has been trying to change that huge machine of theft and crime that was
> created during Eltsyn, slowly, but steadily. If he "puts" Kadyrov as the
> head of Chechnya, then might it be, that he has no choice but to put someone
> who can control the territory and "dogovarivat'sya" with all those powers
> that are at play there, for otherwise the situation is pregnant with still
> another war. And it is during Putin's time that some of the dedovshchina
> cases, and some of the oligarchs, finally made their way to court (not all,
> of course).
>
> All this is probably about - well, not deepening, but at least starting - a
> democratic order. An important part of democracy is how money is spent and
> that no one is hungry.
>
> I am completely aware (polnost'yu otdayu sebe otchet) of what I have
> written, and if somebody had told me in 1991 that I would be writing smth
> like this in 2007, I probaly would have spat in the person's face.
>
> Elena Gapova

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