Boris Nemstov and Garry Kasparov are joining with others to set up a new democratic movement
At a press conference last year, U.S. President George W. Bush raised the question “whether or not it’s possible to reprogram the kind of basic Russian DNA, which is a centralized authority.” Robert Amsterdam translates and interview with Adam Michnik, a leading founder of the Solidarity movement in which the Polish historian dismisses the notion of a Russian predilection to authoritarianism.
Russia has a range of traditions, including the liberal democratic tradition going back at least to Alexander Herzen, notes Michnik, rejecting the “point of view among Western and American cynics and opportunists that we don’t need to do anything, because Russians like dictatorship.”
Perhaps the latest manifestation of that tradition will be seen in next month’s founding of another Solidarity movement. Garry Kasparov and Boris Nemtsov are teaming up to create a new democratic coalition which will be “directed at the perpetuation of Putinism.” President Dmitri Medvedev this week announced that Russia’s constitution will be amended for the first time since its adoption in 1993 to extend the presidential term to six years – a move likely to facilitate Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin for 12 more years.
Russia’s political elite, which suffers from the futile obsession of restoring the country’s superpower status, would be mistaken to equate President-elect Barack Obama’s liberalism with weakness, says Yevgeny Kiselyov, a political analyst with Ekho Moskvy, pointing to an experienced foreign policy team that includes the “senior and junior Brzezinskis, Richard Holbrooke and Michael McFaul.”
U.S.-Russian relations will only improve when there is a new political elite emerges that is ”capable of taking a sober look at the country’s place in the world, defining Russia’s true national interests, and respecting the democratic values that are embraced the world over.”
Europe has the best chance of helping Russia shake off its tragic history of authoritarianism and imperialism, some analysts suggest. While the U.S. and NATO arouse suspicion amongst Russian citizens, European practices, values and economic leverage give it greater traction.
But engaging Moscow should not come at the expense of aspiring democratic allies. “The EU should devise ways for Georgia and Ukraine to participate in an association with step-by-step integration, free trade arrangements, and a road map for eventual EU membership,” former diplomats argue. “The road map should be accompanied by an intensified EU-Russian dialogue that would underscore the benefits of cooperation for all parties.”
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