#13 - JRL 2009-204 - JRL Home


Part of liberal establishment opposes plans to modernize Russia - pundit
Interfax

Moscow, 6 November: The discussion proposed by the Russian leadership on the topic of modernizing the country is useful but it wasn't possible to hold it to the full extent among an expert community, president of the Effective Politics Foundation Gleb Pavlovskiy believes.

"Unfortunately, the discussion on modernization proposed by Medvedev, from my point of view was not a success, because it was drowned in another discussion raised by our communications community, by the community of Internet leaders, who formed groups 'for' and 'against' around the idea itself to modernize Russia," Pavlovskiy said today at a session of the 'Our democracy' group from the Strategy-2020 forum.

In Pavlovskiy's opinion, the results reached during the presidencies of Vladimir Putin and Dmitriy Medvedev are an important component for modernization.

"What was done by Putin's and Medvedev's group in defence of constitutional institutions should not be forgotten. Ten years ago, power was taken by Putin's group; both in the parliamentary election and the presidential election this group had a definite plan for saving the country and the Constitution. Since then, the group has confirmed its right to state power," Pavlovskiy said.

In his opinion, appropriate perception of the idea of modernization is important for participants of the discussion. "Now, when constitutional institutions are protected, precisely this society is in need of modernization," Pavlovskiy noted.

At the same time, he noted the activity of a number of opposition circles advancing concepts of modernization which do not meet Russia's needs. "Today, it is not the 'anti-modernization' project opposing us but the 'modernization without Russia' project. Here it is not necessary to speak about distrust (on the part of the opposition), there is none. There is the policy of the destruction of trust," Pavlovskiy said.

In his opinion, the path for "the destruction of trust" has been taken not only by the opposition but also part of the so-called "liberal establishment".

"There is the policy for increasing distrust for constitutional institutions which both opposition groups and part of the liberal establishment are conducting," he said.

At the same time, in Pavlovskiy's opinion, representatives of the "liberal establishment" in the 1990s discredited the very idea of liberalization. "Our liberal establishment has betrayed liberalization - people who ruined the liberal programme, the liberalization of the security structures, the programme for liberalizing the economy and social institutions," Pavlovskiy said.

 

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