It is usual to read in the western european press that Russia is not a democracy. I would assume that Russia never has been a democracy, neither before or after the communist period. Why ?

The tsarism did open a bit its regime after 1905 when the Ist Duma was created, and later the IId Duma gathered. It was a little opening in the monarchist authoritarian power of Nicolas II(wirh the socialists and Constitutional-Democrats) but the Russian Revolution of 1917 ruined these little efforts to build a more open and participative power.

1. Political democracy.

It’s important to say that that the condition of culture and education to create a real democracy were not present at that time with a great part of the population analphabet (slavery was still present in the facts in the great land estates) and with a little educational level.

The russian revolution shaked the whole society: massa murders, displacement of populations, concentrational camps and they eliminated for a very long period of time the conditions to establish a democracy.

 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the former communist apparatchiks came to power, maintaining Russia and its allies or subcountries in a more modern tsarism with a limited system of election. Boris Eltsine decided to let ratify its nomination as president of the russian federation by the population. The successors of Boris Eltsine, Vladimir Vladimirovitch Poutine and Dmitri Medveded folleowed the same trend.It’s also important to stress that the former soviet play area in the foreign countries still exist. The independance of the former soviet rebublics maintained strong ties with Moscow. Even some parts, now outside Russia, were historically the origin of the medieval Russian State (Kiev in Ukraïne, parts of Belarus) and the russian-speaking population is still high over there (like in Sebastopol, the base of the russian marine on the Black Sea). Therefor, the russian mentality doesn’t accept these countries as wholy foreign countries. This is also the case for the republics of central Asia (Turkmenistan, Azerbaidjan, Ouzbekistan, Kirghiztan…)which joined Russia, for most of them in the 18th century, and which also do have a huge level of russian speaking people. This is why the political systems of these republics are today quite similar to this of Moscow, A still enlightened autocratical style of power with limited rights for the citizens and diminished public liberties (freedom of press, freedom of reunion, and son on).

 

2. Economical democracy.

After the communism, Russia was suddenly confronted to the world economic system and  the state-owned companies, most of them called combinats had to transform. Lightly in fact. These combinats had used for a long time different kinds of forced labour, modern slaveries, with political prisoners put in the camps in the neighbourhood of the combinat (like in Norilsk where Norilsk Nickel is present). Boris Eltsine created a class of former communists who became leaders of these partly  privatised companies and introduced them in different stock exchanges (Moscow, London, NYSE), the state still staying as major shareholder.

Between Eltsine and these leaders, a pact had been established: these leaders could enrich themselves without limits so far as they didn’t want to be involved in politics. Mikhail Kodhorkovsky, CEO of Yukos -the major oil company-, didn’t fulfill the completion of these rules and was jailed and put in Siberia for a long time; Yukos was dismantled and shared under the other companies of the same kind. Gazprom, Rosneft, Norilsk Nickel, Novolipetsk steel, Rusneft are good examples of these companies. Most of them are now under the top 5 of world companies in their area of activities. Russia is now a major world player in the utilities and commodities market.

On the other hand, the russian market was lightly opened to foreign companies but there do still exist many administrative rules which are difficult to complete to import goods in Russia and establish foreign companies.

A real  entrepreneurial democracy has yet to be established in a country where there is a high poverty level(with many inhabitants having the structure of income inheritated form the communist period)  and the differences of income very high. This forms a difficulty for everyone to start his own company.

In both aspects, Russia has to make efforts to ensure a larger acces of everyone to political and economical democracy, if this one day happens.

 

MD DESNERCK