Medvedev calls for democracy po-russki

“Russian democracy will not merely copy foreign models. Civil society cannot be bought with foreign grants,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said in an article published today September 10 by Internet newssite Gazeta.ru, expressing a conservative evolutionary vision of democraticisation.

Crucially, however, Medvedev said that parties would play a central role in Russian democracy, competing for power at all levels, and even nominating candidates for the post of president.

“As in most democratic states, parliamentary parties will be leaders in the political struggle, regularly replacing each other in power. Parties and their coalitions will form federal and regional governments, not vice versa, and nominate candidacies for president, and regional and local government leaders,” Medvedev said, according to Interfax.

But this won’t happen overnight. Medvedev said genuine democracy has to develop through experience and practice, and cannot simply be imported. “Only our own experience of democratic development will give us the right to say that we are free, we are responsible, we are successful,” Medvedev wrote. “Political culture cannot be changed merely by imitating political events of progressive societies, (…) freedom cannot be copied from a book, even if it is a very good book. (…) But no one will live our life for us. No one will become free, successful, and responsible for us,” Medvedev said.

Medvedev argued in favour of gradualism rather than the attempts at radical democraticisation Russia saw in the 1990s.

“We have no right to put social stability at risk and threaten life even for the sake of the loftiest of the goals. (…) Reforms are intended for people, not people for reforms. (…) Change will come. Yes, it will be gradual and well thought out, and go step-by-step. But it will be steady and consistent,” Medvedev said, according to Interfax.

Medvedev significantly failed to mention the role of the mass media and freedom of the press in his article. Instead, he highlighted an effective judiciary as the missing link in Russia’s attempts at democraticisation to date.

“Democracy is in need of protection as much as the fundamental rights and liberties of our citizens are. First of all, protection from corruption, which breeds lawlessness, lack of freedom and injustice. We are just beginning to build such a protection mechanism. The judiciary must be its nucleus,” he wrote.

Although insisting Russia had to take its fate in its own hands, Medvedev also said Russia needed more international integration to be successful. “Our internal financial and technological capabilities are insufficient today to give a real boost to the quality of life. We need money and technologies from countries of Europe, America and Asia,” he wrote, according to Interfax.

Medvedev also highlighted the roots of the demographic crisis. “The population is shrinking with every passing year. Alcoholism, smoking, traffic accidents, poor access to many of the modern medical technologies and environmental problems cut the life span of many people. An increase in birthrate that has made itself felt, does not compensate for the number of deaths,” he said.

Medvedev has made a series of strong statements about the impact of alcoholism on Russia’s development, and spoken positively about Mikhail Gorbachev’s ill-fated anti-alcohol campaign. However, specific measures have yet to be formulated.