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| 14 февраля, 2013

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‘A Storm of Support’

'Vzglyad' publication

By Anna Analbaeva.

Experts believe that Vladimir Putin’s new initiative will lead to the gradual ‘Nationalization of the Elite’

Members of a round table debate on banning officials from keeping money abroad came to the conclusion that the Russian governmental elite is about to undergo some major changes. The experts believe that such a ban would help cultivate patriotic values among officials. However, others fear that state employees will simple sidestep the new law.

On Thursday, the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society held a round table discussion on the ‘nationalization of the elite.’ The debate centred around the proposal, put forward the previous day, by President Vladimir Putin. The bill would ban officials from holding foreign bank accounts, stocks and shares.

The debate was opened by the former head of the Department of Domestic Policy within the Presidential Administration – Konstantin Kostin who pointed out how important the bill was for reasons of national security. ‘The fact that government officials own significant assets overseas has created a problem with their loyalty and this in turn has led to a situation where the countries where these assets are held, have a tool for interfering in Russia’s internal affairs.’

Maxim Shevchenko, President of the Human Rights Council spoke next, expressing the hope that the law would become ‘a major step in the creation of a national elite.’ He said that he hoped that ‘the sovereign democracy which was previously laughed at will now become a reality. This is a step forwards to the creation of a national government.’

A ‘Storm’ of support.

Leonid Polyakov, Head of the Political Consulting Department of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, pointed to what he considered the important ‘humane’ aspect of the bill. ‘The United States has adopted the ‘Magnitsky Act’ whereby any citizen who infringes on human rights, including officials, can find themselves on a list of people whose bank accounts are frozen. Europe wants to follow the U.S. example…but this law protects our elite from attack’ he stated.

In the words of Valeri Fyodorov, the Director of the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre, this law will find favour with the public. ‘The majority of Russians have already made up their minds’ he said. ‘Any measures which cut off the pumping of money out of our country into other countries is going to be met with a storm of support and therefore there can be no discussion. The firm majority, no less that 61%, support this bill.’

Fedorov also said that Russians are extremely irritated by the word ‘revolution’ and ‘elite.’

‘In the opinion of Russians, the officials that make up our present day elite are better than those in the old Soviet elite in every possible way’ he said. ‘They are younger, more energetic, more intelligent, more enterprising, more educated and more competent. They just have one Achilles heel: they are interested in helping themselves and not the country.’

Sergei Dorenko, Director of the Russian News Radio station warned that the law will not automatically work. ‘If financial monitoring detects a name which is more or less well-known, then only then will sanctions be sought from above’ he said. ‘It is morals which are important here, not the law itself. The Russian elite will find a way to side-step the law in an immoral but intelligent way.’

‘Our elite are made up in the following way’ he went on. ‘The top caste live in London and go to Moscow to work and the second caste, live in Moscow and go to the provinces to work. And while that is the situation no law will work and neither will re-education’ warned Dorenko.

His colleague the Editor-in-Chief of ‘Odnako’ magazine Mikhail Leontev took an even tougher stance calling for more stringent measures. ‘I would like to see even harsher measures being taken’ he said. ‘If an official gets caught out now he faces nothing but the sack. I would do things differently. But this would lead to changes in social structure.’

Another of their colleagues, the Editor in Chief of ‘Expert’ Magazine, Valerii Fadeev took a milder approach. He emphasised the role of social morality which has created an atmosphere of intolerance to this sort of behaviour. He cited the United Kingdom where there is no such law but where ‘social opinion is so important that if someone running for MP opens an account in Switzerland he will be so censored by the public that he will never be voted in. This moral censure is stronger than any law’ said Fadeev.

Basic Buckles.

In an interview with Vzglyad, Kostin expressed confidence that the law will unite the Russian elite with uniform national interests. ‘In the U.S. for example there are representatives of the elite, Republicans or Democrats, who are often in quite violent conflict with each other. But they have common basic principles: they love their country and their history and they want their people to flourish and so they act in the interests of the people. This is what unites the elite. And it is these rules, these buckles as the President put it in his address, which should be evident in our own country.

The political consultant doubts that the law will see massive violations. ‘I don’t believe there are a lot of malicious people who will hang on to the last, knowing full well that they are breaking the law. They either fulfil the requirements of the law or forgo service to the State’ said Kostin.

Sergei Markov, member of the Public Chamber and Rector of the Russian Economic University agrees with him, adding that the formation of a national elite without the participation of the State is not likely.

‘Any nation resolves most of its problems through its government’ he said in an interview with Vzglyad following the debate The formation of national elites outside the State only happens in cases of national liberation revolutions – like for example what is happening with the Kurds. In order to ensure that the formation of a national elite should be in accord with the desires of the State, the State itself must make sure it is involved in that formation.’