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#23 - JRL 2006-136 - JRL Home
From: Andrei Sitov (WashTASS@aol.com)
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006
Subject: Re: Putin Protectionism [re: Trade, Democracy]

I'm writing in response to the recent Markov-McFaul debate and other publications on Russian democracy. I feel there's either a misunderstanding or a deliberate misrepresentation of President Putin's policies.

I can't claim to know what the motives behind those policies are. But I think that for analytical purposes it might be useful to define them as protectionism - political as well as economic.

Protectionism by definition runs counter to liberalization. But the term avoids the impression (a wrong one, in my opinion) of a deliberate choice in favor of authoritarianism, a discredited historic option. It implies a temporary (and somewhat forced) nature of the policies. It also implicitly recognizes their long-term costs and risks as well as presumed short-term advantages. Finally and importantly for the political class, protectionism is usually popular with the public anywhere.

Nobody doubts that Russia wants to join the WTO and is ready to accept the economic liberalization that goes along with it. Yet in the accession negotiations Moscow tries to drive as hard a bargain as it can get away with. This is considered natural, nobody does it better than the US.

The same template is easily applied to politics. From hard experience Russia knows that calls for a political liberalization are often used by the US and others just to promote their national (or "Western corporate") interest. Just read the Talbott book on how it was done with the Yeltsin government. Also, look at the more recent experience in some former Soviet nations.

With friends like this, who needs enemies? Political protectionism was a natural reaction for a stronger Russia. It does not mean that freedom and democracy are rejected as a national goal. It does mean that Russia intends to proceed to that goal on its own schedule and with its own priorities.

The most the US can hope for is that its own model - somewhat tarnished in the last few years - still has some powers of attraction for the outside world.

Sincerely,
Andrei Sitov
Washington, DC
andreisitov@yahoo.com.