Don’t be scared of the Russians

The big Russian bear just wants to be loved

07 November 2007

The Kremlin is full of paranoia, not aggression

At heart the Russians just want to be like you and me, easy-going, consumer-driven Europeans whose idea of the good life is paying off the mortgage, buying lots of designer clothes and watching football — preferably at one of those Premiership clubs they’ve bought up. If only those pesky Americans would stop rattling the bear’s cage with their creeping military expansionism into eastern Europe, the Baltic and Central Asia, Europe could be one big happy family. It’s just wherever the Russians look these days, whether it’s Ukraine or Iraq, all they see is the Stars and Stripes advancing towards them, which they find most unnerving, to say the least.

There is something almost reassuring about walking into the Kremlin these days. The ideological fanaticism that sustained decades of communist oppression is as dead as the embalmed remains of Comrade Lenin that languish in the dingy concrete sarcophagus outside.

Entering the command and control centre of Putin’s empire is like visiting the offices of an aspiring Third World company that one day hopes to join the international jet set, with glitzy offices in Mayfair or Park Avenue.

The lifts that take you to the executive suite — the preserve of the Russian president’s senior advisers — are dimly lit and lurch unevenly between the floors. They are carpeted with dirty, ill-fitting Sixties-style pile rugs and the unmistakable scent of stale body odour abounds. If first impressions counted for anything, you would think this was a company on its uppers, not one seeking total dominance of the world’s energy markets.

It certainly makes more sense to think of the Kremlin as a corporate headquarters than a mere centre of government. As an American official who visits regularly remarked, ‘Everyone in the Kremlin has two business cards — one for their official business, and one for Russia Inc.’

And to judge by the wide variety of luxury limousines ferrying Putin’s inner circle in and out of the imposing front gates, more time is devoted to Russia Inc — exploiting the nation’s vast wealth of natural resources — than the tedious business of government.

In fact governing Russia today is relatively straightforward — the president gives the orders and the country obeys, such is the stranglehold Vladimir Putin exercises over what passes for Russia’s democratic institutions. His ruthless suppression of the opposition these past seven years has reduced the Duma to the strictly administrative role of rubber-stamping the executive decrees emanating from the office of the country’s chairman and CEO. Nor are things likely to change with next month’s parliamentary elections where Mr Putin’s United Russia party is already guaranteed 80 per cent of the seats.

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Alex

November 19th, 2007 6:56am Report this comment

I think, that americans place this radar and missiles because they are not interested to see quet and friendly Europe. If EC and Russia help each other. Russia to Europe with energy and Europe to Russia with technologies and transport. Everybody will forget about USA, they will lose their influence. Look! They come to European outsiders and place their military facilities to protect Europe, but nobody in Europe was asking them or even was warried about danger from Iran. The main reason is to politicaly destabilize relations between EC and Russia, in this case USA have their role and keep control!

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