Putin Moves Towards Conservative Electorate; Healthy Forces Around Unhealthy ‘Vertical’

Putin Moves Towards Conservative Electorate – Argumenty Nedeli – September 13, 2012 – Article by Andrey Uglanov: “Healthy Forces Around Unhealthy ‘Vertical’.”

[no link available to English-languge version of article]

Argumenty Nedeli reports that, according to the All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), the number of citizens on whom Russian President Vladimir Putin makes a favorable impression has declined by 20% in 10 years, while the number of those on whom he makes an unfavorable impression has increased by 14%.

Andrey Uglanov comments that Putin’s only choice is to seek support among the conservative part of the population, which still claims an absolute majority.

He suggest such a need motivates Putin to adop harsh rhetoric and stricter laws.

Uglanov also suggests that, after Putins Oct. 7 birthday, he also will purge some of his inner circle, including Serdyukov and Manturov, and perhaps even Medvedev.

However, Uglanov argues, Putin might actually be an economic liberal at heart, even if it is the Communists who are claiming that part of the political spectrum.

Uglanov goes on to discuss efforts, which he says are connected with the President’s Staff, to create a “Conservative Political Club.”

The “club” is to become a “platform” for politicians and experts who hold national-statehood views. Their task is to create an ideological counterweight to the liberals, to prepare new ideas and expert appraisals as a response to the “Bolotnyy” community. At that meeting, it was supposedly proposed that the outstanding publicist and writer A. Prokhanov could become the “fiery motor of the club.” And the council members under him would be Mr. Kurginyan, Tretyakov, Dugin, Medinskiy, Rogozin, and Ms. Narochnitskaya. Obviously, they must also be diluted by the conservative youth, some new faces.

Curiously enough, the organizers understood perfectly well that the “club” could naturally turn into another mainstay of the authorities. So that such an impression is not formed, its members will be allowed to criticize them. But only from national-state positions. Examples of topics for criticism might be Russia’s entry into the WTO and the migration policy.

Such a club already has met in Izborsk, reportedly with an eye towards combining political and public affairs figures with scientists and defense-related personages:

The “club’s” constituent meeting was held on 9 September in Izborsk (Pskov Oblast). So that the project of the “club” has already come to be called the “Izborsk project.” Not only will political scientists and publicists be involved in its work, but also scientists, defense industry designers, and military men. And perhaps even the commander of the Air Force, V. Shamanov.

If the “Izborsk project” manages to gather the “healthy forces” of society around the unhealthy “vertical,” it would have every chance of becoming a federal project, with impressive financing. But that would also be its trouble. Where there is budget money, there is squabbling and a merciless struggle for leadership and for the office of treasurer.

And the “healthy forces” will still have to be sought out. Recruiting them to the “Izborsk Project” will be difficult. It is specifically they – the representatives of the defense sector, military men and scientists – who have been the most slighted by the authorities. And they are glad to become conservatives, and even to live under an authoritarian regime. Except that this regime is authoritarian only in politics. In economics, just as it was liberal before, so it remains.

[no link available to English-languge version of article]