I thought Ekman's comments during the recent JRL brouhaha between you, Gessen, Ware, Fitzpatrick etc. were to the point:
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 From: Peter Ekman <pdekman2000 at yahoo.com> Subject: When things were better
I hope nobody thinks that I m accusing them of idealism or of being extraordinary. I actually like idealistic extraordinary people, and sometimes I even flatter myself that I might be one too.
Nevertheless, when I criticized Masha Gessen s approach to political reporting about Russia, I certainly meant that a realistic view is called for, that we must view not only the defects of Russia s political system (of which there are many) but also how far it has progressed. I do think that in a democracy ordinary people s viewpoints are extraordinarily important, as is the economic welfare of the ordinary person.
I challenged JRL readers to send me specific dates of when things were better in terms of 1) the standard of living of the ordinary person or of the economic situation in general, 2) the strength of the democratic system, and 3) the support of the population for the government s policies.
There were only 2 specific responses including Gessen s (in JRL 8074).
Neither claimed that there was a better time than now for 1) or 3). Since it seems that nobody can come up with a better time for the ordinary Russian s standard of living, or of popular support for the government, we should all stand up right now and give President Putin at least two cheers.
The only disagreement was on point 2) the strength of democracy. One response claimed that democracy was stronger in Russia from 1990-1993, stressing 1991. Gessen (although she made me do the math), claims that democracy was stronger from 1994-1999, stressing 1999, just before Putin took office. Let s be realistic and look at these dates:
1991 the August coup, and the December dissolution of the USSR, (which seems to be against the wishes of 90% of Russians.) 1992 the Gaidar government, which made a point of hurting the average Russian as much as possible, as soon as possible. The loss of most people s savings. 1993 the shelling of the Duma by Yeltsin. 1995 Chubais s loans for shares rip-off. 1996 Yeltsin re-elected despite starting the year with popularity ratings in the low single digits, and despite having a heart attack a few days before the election. 1998 government default, the loss of most people s savings. 1999 Boris Berezhovsky organizes a new party of power a couple of months before Duma elections, and wins! Yeltsin resigns and (Berezhovsky?) appoints the new president.
In short democracy was simply not functioning during these years.
Now, a large majority of Russians agree in general with the government s policies. They vote to return the President s party back to power in the Duma in even greater strength, and, in the process severely weaken the Communist party and the political strength of big business. Now people are ready to re-elect the President in a land-slide. It s obviously not perfect, but it looks a lot like a functioning democracy to me.