Nemtsov and Putin: two Russias

On Saturday, March 21st Garry Kasparov visits Tilburg University. On invitation of the Nexus Institute the former world chess champion will debate with the attending public about the political situation in Russia. As is known, Kasparov is a fierce opponent of Vladimir Putin. Preceding Kasparov’s visit universonline.nl publishes a number of blogs. Both students and professors will have their say on a complex matter of present interest: ‘Putin’s Russia’. The second blog is by Evgeny Shapka (38), masterstudent at TIAS. Evgeny is both Russian and Ukranian.

***

I am writing this blog on the day when a huge procession passed through the streets of Moscow. More than 50,000 Russians went to commemorate Boris Nemtsov, leader of the Russian opposition, who was killed on February 27th near Kremlin.

At the end of the 1980s people in the Soviet Union were very excited by the political changes initiated by President Gorbachev. It was the time of the large meetings on the streets and the long political talk-shows on TV. People believed that the Soviet Union would soon be transformed in a democratic country, like the United States or The Netherlands. In 1990 scientist Nemtsov was elected in the Russian parliament in his home city of Gorki and started his political career. In the same time KGB agent Putin moved from Eastern Germany to the Soviet Union and started his job at the university. In the beginning of the 1990s the partly successful economic reforms were implemented in Russia by democratically elected President Yeltsin and his Prime Minister Gaidar. Many Russians were disappointed in democracy because the economic reforms decreased the standard of living in the short-term period. Russia still had had the democratic elections on all levels: independent media, freedom of speech and belief but many citizens already became apathetic and apolitical in the 1990s.

Nemtsov’s career in the 1990s was political and public: successful governor of his home region Nizhniy Novgorod (with a population of 4 million people), energy minister and deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government. Putin’s career in those days was managerial and nonpublic: international relation department’s chief and deputy major of his home city St Petersburg, positions in the administration of the Russian President and chief of Russian Federal security service (KGB successor). Actually Nemtsov and Putin were the government officials of the same level in the 1990s. Senescent unhealthy President Yeltsin was looking for a successor and analyzed both Nemtsov and Putin as the next President of Russia. After the financial crisis of 1998 Nemtsov as a member of government was dismissed but Putin was promoted to Prime Minister (in 1999).

The first term of President Putin (2000-2004) was a time of economic and political changes in Russia. Liberal economists in government reformed financial and commercial regulations to attract more foreign investments to Russia and to initiate the economic growth. In the same time government and government-owned companies took under control all the key media in Russia. Russian businessman Khodorkovskiy, a rich sponsor of the opposition, was arrested and prisoned. Western-oriented parties did not get places on the parliament on election in 2003. Opposition leader Nemtsov also left the Russian parliament. The second term of President Putin (2004-2008) led to the complete reversal of the Russian foreign policy. Putin assessed Western support to the Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004) as a personal insult. President administration introduced the concept of “Sovereign democracy” with an idea that Russia should be fully independent from the Western world. Special law was introduced to regulate foreign non-government organizations and foreign investments to media. Anti-western political organizations were supported by government. In that time Nemtsov worked as a consultant in Russia and was an advisor of Ukrainian President Yuschenko. In reality “Sovereign democracy” turned into the strange political construction. Medvedev was elected Russian President in 2008 and Putin was appointed Prime Minister. Political parties in parliament came under control of the government. Businessmen related to Putin had more and more businesses and power in Russia. The armed conflict with Georgia was introduced as a support to Russian citizens in this country. Everybody including western leaders understood that Putin (not Medvedev) had real power in Russia.

Nemtsov and his party entirely lost the hope to be elected in parliament. Without access to significant media, Nemtsov with his colleagues wrote and widely distributed a few expert papers: “Putin. Summation”, “Putin and Gasprom”, “Putin and crisis”, “Putin. Corruption”, “Winter Olympic Games in subtropic” and others. Nemtsov claimed that Putin controlled the key resources in Russia and blamed him for corruption and inefficient management. Nemtsov introduced publication of the names of businessmen related to Putin and the listing of their fortunes after 2000. Also Nemtsov was the organizer of many opposition meetings and demonstrations in Moscow. It was very visible in 2011 and 2012 when opposition blamed government in falsifications of parliamentary and presidential elections. Hundreds of thousands of people went on the streets in Moscow to protest against falsifications.

The current presidential term of Putin (2012-2018) looks like a time of his personal cult. When Russian parliament had been voting for including Crimea in Russia, only one member of parliament was able to vote against this law. Russian media became totally anti-western and created a virtual picture of the world. Many people in Russia still enjoy stability under president Putin because their living standard is higher than in the 1990s. GDP per capita has increased around two times since 2000. More than 80% of the Russians have never been abroad- so Russia is still a quite close society. Boris Nemtsov was against the current Russian policy in regard to Ukraine and investigated Russian involvement into the war conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk. He had been working for the new expert paper “Putin. War” and was going to introduce it very soon. Also Nemtsov and his party were going to participate in the parliamentary election in 2016.
Nemtsov was killed on February 27th in Moscow, only 100 meters from the Kremlin.

Evgeny Shapka
(shapka3@mail.ru)

More info on the Kasparov-Lecture.