Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, posted an article on his pre-election website, in which he directly blamed the West for importing democracy. It turns out that those who demand reforms and, in particular, fair elections in Russia are “unconstructive” forces and states that import democracy by means of force and military operations are objectively their allies. Besides, Putin mentions that democratic expectations are not met either and negative consequences of those processes are more. I.e. let me rule for another 12 years, if you don’t wantRussiato be like Libya and Egypt. Firstly, I cannot imagine that any external force tries to establish democracy inRussiamilitarily – it will result in a world war. Secondly, the West will never show such activity in the post-Soviet countries, if it doesn’t see that the majority of the society is mature enough for changes. On Sunday, for example, a parliamentary election took place inKazakhstan, as a result of which the ruling party, according to official results, won 80% of votes. The OSCE monitors stated that the election had not been democratic. The Europeans “will not interfere with the internal affairs” ofKazakhstanbeyond that statement. Because there are no influential forces in Kazakhstan that oppose Nazarbayev’s authoritarian regime not with words, but with deeds and offer the people clear and acceptable alternative. Saakashvili offered the following alternative in Georgia, “We must get out ofRussia’s sphere of influence and must long for becoming a member of NATO and EU and in order to do that we must considerably reduce corruption and create normal conditions for private businesses.” No matter it was right or wrong, the majority of the population in that country accepted that idea, believed in it and only after that the West offered support for the “orange revolution”. There is no such idea inRussia– legitimacy and democratization cannot make the Russian people rise. The opposition movement has chances for developing there, in my opinion, only if the society is offered extremely nationalist ideas. However, in that instance I am not sure that the West will support that movement. I also highly doubt that an extremely nationalist establishment in theRussian Federationis more preferable for us, Armenians, than, Putin’s authoritarianism.
There is an observation in the Russian Prime Minister’s article that is quite accurate. I mean that “toppling people”, revolutionaries quickly become arrogant masters and on the opposite, the latter often become revolutionaries. Those processes take place before our eyes – street “Gavroches”, taking comfortable offices, become supporters of stability and little princes and on the opposite, those who owned everything before, losing their offices, become “Gavroches” again, seeking justice in the streets.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
