Vladimir Putin's Strategic Plan for Russia
Ex-President & Current Prime Minister Designs Mother Russia’s Future
Aug 12, 2008
The governmental pendulum in Russia has swung the arc of political variances for centuries. Today Vladimir Putin is a different type of leader, whose personal vision encompasses new ideas with old techniques. From heroes to despots, control has always involved politics in Russia with little change. However, Putin has pseudo-westernized the politics and solidified the control, setting the ultimate itinerary for the Russian Motherland.
In 1904 Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin wrote his book, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. In it Lenin compared the governmental principles of the Bolsheviks to those of the Mensheviks and its affect on Russian politics. The term has lasted for a century when, BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson reversed Lenin’s title on September 16th, 1998 and wrote the article, Two steps forward, one step back. He says, “Russia is doing what it always does: taking two steps forward and one step back….”
Russian Advances
As her leaders go, so goes Russia! Vladimir Putin has been the leader during the 8 years of Russia’s economic revival. In the BBC article Simpson said, “…this is becoming a different country -- a country which will eventually become so used to the habits…that no one will readily be able to change it back to its old ways.”
Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Boris Nemtsov, wrote a White Paper, Putin: the Bottom Line, translated March 31, 2008 by Dave Essel, and said, “[Russian] GNP has gone up by 70%, real incomes have…more than doubled and poverty has been reduced….The budget has a surplus and the state’s…gold and foreign currency reserves reached $480 billion, third largest in the world after China…and Japan.” By all accounts Russia has done well since the Soviet and Yeltsin days.
Ten years after Simpson’s article; however, many disagree. In the award winning book, The Age of Assassins: the Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin by Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky the authors claim, “The KGB has…obtained absolute control over Russia and its resources….Gradually Putin has turned into a dictator….”
Putin’s Course
- Economics – Nemtsov wrote, “In 1997…the Russian government…set out to make systemic reforms aimed at transforming the country into a modern democratic state with a competitive market economy....However…the program for socio-economic reforms mooted in 2000 at the start of Putin’s first term.”
- The Oligarchs – The fall of the Soviet Union brought the rise of the oligarchs to Russia. Robert Michels' theory, The Iron Law of Oligarchy, written in his book Political Parties says, "Thus the majority of human beings, in a condition of eternal tutelage, are predestined by tragic necessity to submit to the dominion of a small minority, and must be content to constitute the pedestal of an oligarchy." The Russian citizens were unaccustomed to this concentration of private wealth and were not "content."
- State Control – Putin used this discontent and anger to effect state control of most aspects of Russian life. Nemtsov argued, “Putin’s government distinguished itself by its authoritarianism... In 2003…unprecedented pressure was deployed against business and the decimation of YUKOS was begun….” Gazprom, RosNefteGaz, Sibneft, NTV, TNT, REN TV, Channel 5 St. Petersburg, Pravda newspaper, Rossiya Bank, SVyazBank, Sogaz Insurance, RTK-Leasing, Rosoboronexport and numerous other holdings were seized by the state and redistributed to Putin allies. Aristotle stated millennia ago, "True Oligarchs should affect to be advocates of the people's cause….I shall do no harm to the people.”
Oleg Gordievsky summed Putin's course for Russia best in his book review for the Times, “The 20th century has entered history as an age of tyrants. Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Mao....Great and small, extreme and moderate, communist and nationalist, they brought unspeakable evil to their victims….Our inclination is to draw parallels between new phenomena and familiar, old ones. We want to know: is Putin a despot or not? Will the world see a new cold - or perhaps even nuclear - war?” What will Putin's Russia do?
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