The King’s Speech
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – April 26, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin broke his own record with his longest ever annual Q&A meet the people press conference. In just under five hours the president attempted to answer as many of the more than 3m questions submitted by Russians on topics covering the gamut of issues.
Widely ridiculed by western correspondents as the spectacle of authoritarian leader burnishing his Great Leader profile, the show (for want of a better word, as it is clearly not quiet a press conference) comes out of a long Russian tradition. In the pre-revolutionary days Russians regularly wrote to the Tsar for help who would regularly descend deus ex-machina to answer their requests. It was a way for the autocrat to reaffirm his leadership over the people and to counter the Russian fatalism enshrined in the classic expression: Gods too high and the Tsars too far.
And Putin was on form. In answer to a request by a small girl that her local park doesn’t have a playground, Putin said one would be built and before the end of the marathon call-in the local governor was on the wires confirming the park is now on its way. Lets just say that western Europeans don’t run their countries this way, although to be honest our politicians are prone to flip flop on issues in the face of pubic opinion, albeit delivered by polls rather than phone-ins Merkel’s decision to renege on an election promise to close nuclear power stations after taking office only to reverse that decision after Fukashima disaster in Japan is a classic example.
However, rather than see this in terms of Tsarist aspirations, it probably is more useful to see it as Putin’s efforts to form a rapport with the people by defining a political image that is best understood as a conservative position. The upshot of the demonstrations that started in December 2011 is the Kremlin has reacted by making more of an effort to craft a political stance that it can put up against the liberal opposition.
And Russia is all said and done a very conservative society that in many ways mirrors Americas brand of conservatism. It is deeply religious. It vaunts its great nation status. It is pretty intolerant of minorities of any type, but especially sexual ones. It is overtly racist. And it is elitist. All of this can be said about America too. The big difference between the two counties is that America takes as axiomatic its belief in the principle of Herbert Hoover’s rugged individualism where the citizen is responsible for his own destiny. In Russia, as recent studies have shown, the opposite is true, where the state is expected to take the lead in providing a quiet and prosperous life.
Looking at the Putin presser through this prism and most of the things you would expect to hear. We reproduce a list from VTB on the main points below. [DJ: Not here.] However, the main take out from a business point of view is that Putin said there would be no major Cabinet shuffle any time soon (quashing rumours that prime minister Dmitry Medvedev is on the way out) and that there would also be no major changes in economic policy.