The article by Vladislav Surkov, former deputy head of the presidential administration and former «gray cardinal» of the Kremlin, has become the main political news of today. Well, let’s not ignore it either. Leaving aside Surkov’s dubious reasoning about Russian history, let’s extract the main theses of his pamphlet for our readers:
— Russia has no choice in which direction it will develop, so no matter what ideology it tries to implement, it will always end up as a given state, a military-repressive machine embodied by its leader;
— In the West, politicians try to hide their true nature behind a facade of decency, but the Russian authorities do not hide their true nature, and this «honesty» attracts those who are disillusioned with Western democracy;
— While many believed in the future of a global open society with a free Internet and a diminishing role of governments, Putin’s Russia began to isolate itself from the world, regulating the Internet, restricting the activities of non-governmental organizations, and eventually other countries followed suit;
— In his Munich speech, Putin challenged the American-centric world, and now not only is the whole world tired of America, but the Americans themselves are tired of it (their global dominance).
So, in fact, Surkov is either bragging about things he should be ashamed of, or about things that did not happen thanks to him and his associates.
Yes, it is obvious that the political system in the West is largely hypocritical and unattractive, and Western critics have been writing and talking about it since Surkov and Putin were in school. But only the most marginal people believe that the alternative should be an honest system in its ugliness, as Surkov characterizes the Russian system, Putin’s system. Because the existing system in the West is criticized to make it honest in its ideals and conformity to them, not to make it honest or open in its ugliness, as Surkov suggests.
This also applies to Russia as an alternative to America, which, as Surkov tries to prove, has managed to become one against all odds. In reality, first of all, as he himself writes, it is the Americans who got tired of being the world’s policeman and decided to concentrate on solving their own problems, and secondly, if anyone is really filling the void left by this, it is the growing economies of China, India, Brazil, Turkey, and not Russia with its declining economy, which is trying to interfere everywhere with its absurd private military companies, hackers, and «Petrov-Boshirov» agents.
And now to the main conclusions of the article. In essence, the architect of Putinism not only admits, but boasts, that in almost 20 years of its existence, Russia has failed to create an effective and self-sufficient state that works like clockwork for the benefit of its citizens. He scornfully calls such a state the «deep state» and says that while the West has a «deep state,» in Russia we have a «deep people. He goes on to write: «The ability to listen to and understand the people, to see them through, to act accordingly — this is the unique and main advantage of Putin’s state. It is in line with the people, travels side by side with them, and therefore it is not subject to destructive overloads from opposing currents of history. That is why it is effective and durable.» This eulogy of Putin as the embodiment of the wishes of the «deep people» is concluded by Surkov in equally pompous terms: «Basically, society trusts only the first person. Whether it’s the pride of a never-conquered people, the desire to lead the way to the truth, or something else, it’s hard to say, but this is a fact, and not a new one… The modern model of the Russian state begins with trust and is built on trust».
In a word, as they used to say in Soviet times, «When we say party, we mean Lenin, when we say Lenin, we mean the party». And one could say: «No comment,» but no, a comment must be made.
Almost simultaneously with Surkov’s article, the latest data from the nationwide Levada Center poll were published, according to which over the past year the proportion of those who do not trust the authorities has increased from 37% to 52%, and the number of those who believe that the country is moving in the wrong direction has reached 45%, the highest since 2007.
Earlier, it was reported that according to the latest VCIOM poll, Putin’s rating reached an all-time low for his entire time in office, falling to 33%.
So, real life dispels Surkov’s and Putin’s self-hypnosis. And if their state began and continued on the basis of trust in one person, then according to their own logic it will end with his loss. Just as it happened to their historical predecessors.