Kremlin official says Russian political system is right
Interfax
Moscow, 2 March: The first deputy head of the Russian Federation Presidential Administration, Vladislav Surkov, has criticized ideas about reforming existing political institutions.
"I think that our political system works," Surkov told a Strategy 2020 forum in Moscow on Monday (2 March) which was devoted to the first anniversary of Dmitriy Medvedev's election as president. Forum materials are posted on One Russia's official website.
Surkov said that at present, particularly in crisis conditions, "the most dangerous thing would be to start tossing about". "The crisis is still in its early stages in our country, but we are already prepared to say that we are prepared to revise our institutions and - I have read this myself! - rethink our values," the representative of the Presidential Administration said.
"What is the first thing that the democracies whose example we are normally urged to follow do to respond to any crisis? We believe in our institutions; we will not reject our values, they say," he said.
He recalled that our values are clearly defined in Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev's address to the Federal Assembly: "Freedom, justice, patriotism, love of the family - which of these should we reject?"
"I am also amused by demands for more liberalism," he said, while agreeing that "there are many problems in this regard". "The question is how to approach this. This is not a matter of radical decisions. Western democracies too have demonstrated their inability to manage free people," said Surkov.
Responding to one of the participants in the discussion who argued that one should react to a crisis based on the situation, as one would react to changes in the landscape, Surkov said that he didn't agree that every change in the landscape should lead to a revision of the strategy. "You know, when our troops were moving from Moscow to Berlin they came across different landscapes, but the strategy was the same - seize Berlin and destroy the invader," he said.
Surkov also disagreed with (Nezavisimaya Gazeta editor-in-chief) Konstantin Remchukov in his assessment of the role of parliament in crisis periods: "There does not seem to be a country where parliament has issued a super efficient recipe."
Having stressed that he is "defender of the current political system", Surkov said that "it is much more fun to be calling for everything to be changed". "This is our main flaw - we do not want to finish anything, we are prepared to abandon everything half way through the job, without thinking about the consequences," he said.
In this connection, he warned of the dangers of such proposals.
"No-one has worked out what a new political system would look like, and what would be the cost of putting it in place. I think that this would be a dangerous starting point for further political and political science discourse against the background of a crisis," he said.
Surkov also criticized intentions "of certain experts to question the necessity to develop innovative technologies in the country at a time of crisis". "If we join those who think that innovative development of Russia is impossible we will do disservice to our society," he said.
Surkov also gave his assessment of "the fashionable, among political scientists, thought that over the course of the past eight years there has been a contract between society and the authorities": "The authorities have been handing out petrodollars, feeding everyone, while in return society has been waiving its rights and freedoms. Now that petrodollars have dried up, it has suddenly come back to people's minds - 'give us our freedom'."
This theory is temptingly simple, he said: "I would like to remind those saying this: their sense of decency should not betray them even in times of crisis. One case of surrendering rights for material gains is widely known. It is the story of Isaiah who sold his birthright, associated with many privileges, for a mess of pottage. One should be careful with making bold statements likening our people, our outstanding nation to one of the most despised Biblical figures."