Will Russia ever get rid of the ‘leaders’ who have ruined its economy and now bask in doomsday scenarios?
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
The Moscow Gaidar forum under the auspices of the Higher School of Economics, or “Vyshka” has come to a close. “Vyshka” – is actually a quasi-legislative body that for the past 15 years continues to dictate Russia’s economic principles. During this period, Russia has faced a third major crisis that destroyed the savings of ordinary Russians, and pushed Russia back decades in its economic development. During the reign of the Higher School of Economics, it has failed to build an alternative to a carbon-based economy, returning to a poor financial situation after the decline in oil prices.
And now these gentlemen come together at the forum in groups of 4 and 5 to talk about the situation in Russia and suggest ways to overcome it. All that could be heard though, is that Russia cannot meet the competition, we have no economic and political future, Russia is at the bottom of the hierarchical order of losers, the winners ready to exploit her as an appendix of their rapidly developing civilization. They claim that this is entirely our fault since we could not foresee modern development trends and in order to catch up, we need to transform ourselves.
I was looking at Anatoly Chubais (minister in charge of privatization, deputy PM and head of Presidential administration under Boris Yeltsin, presently director general of Rosnano state corporation – ed.) who has a poker statue like face, at German Gref (Minister of Economic Development in 2000 – 2007, now president of Sberbank, Russia's largest state controlled bank – ed), at Alexei Kudrin (Minister of Finance in 2000 – 2011), and I was thinking that apparently we have to wait another 15 years for these gentlemen to self-transform, meaning we face economic death.
It occurred to me that they looked like the war criminals at The Nuremberg trials. All that was missing were headphones, guards behind them and a prosecutor in front. These people have committed strategic crimes that have Russia to an economic dead end, doing everything possible to conform to the usual Russian formulas. Today after 15 years of economic management they claim they were right, having done everything they could to make their forecasts come true.
This forum felt tragic. Not because the current situation in Russia is bad, nor even because those who sabotaged the development of Russia still do not understand the right direction for our continent. The drama is that we see no way to get over this carcinoma that has afflicted the very roots of our social organism.
We will have to change our economic policy to get out of the abyss we are still falling into. Either we will get out of it as the Russian people have always managed to get out of the darkness, or we will see US marines walking around our country. How should we react to this hideous part of our body? How should we change the elites? How should we chase these snobbish, self-centered, rich people who have generated a monstrous property class for whom Russia is just a prey?
Looking at this crowd all the masks were off: fearful faces with bloodshot eyes were tearing Russia to shreds .
This must not happen. They must be banished. There is no place for them in Russia.
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
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