RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Dmitry Medvedev yesterday called for a “backward” Russia to modernise its economy and political system and make a clean break with the past.
Expectations had been high for Mr Medvedev’s annual address to both houses of parliament after he published an article in September laying out his criticism of the status quo in Russia.
Mr Medvedev said the Russian economy was still too dependent on Soviet-era industries and the export of natural resources.
“The nation’s prestige and welfare can’t depend forever on the achievements of the past,” he said. “All that has kept the country afloat, but it is rapidly ageing.”
But while a call for modernisation lay at the core of his address, the practical steps and policies for implementing it remained largely unarticulated.
Aleksei Pushkov, a political talk show host in Moscow, said after the speech: “He is really infatuated with modernisation.
“This is not just talk, he really wants to do something. But while the goals are clear, where are the mechanisms? That’s the problem.”
Some new initiatives were considered narrow and technical, such as electoral reform in Russian regions, and a previously announced move to disband Russia’s state corporations by transforming them into joint stock companies.
While the speech lasted an hour and a half, and contained detail on everything from reducing the number of time zones in Russia (currently 11) to a new generation of energy-efficient light bulbs, what was most noteworthy was what was left out.
The foreign policy component was small, and contained none of the characteristic self-assertiveness of previous such addresses by Mr Medvedev or Mr Putin.
But while announcing model political reforms at the regional level, Mr Medvedev found nothing specific to criticise about Russia’s federal system, and made no specific criticisms of agencies or individuals.
Mikhail Ostrovsky, deputy head of the Civic Chamber, a body of experts on politics and society, said the speech reflected the prevailing consensus in elite circles that “the political system does not need major changes. It needs to be perfected, of course, but we don’t need a revolution”.
The speech also disappointed some who expected Mr Medvedev would use the chance to make a break with the past or carve an independent political identity separate from that of his mentor and predecessor, prime minister Vladimir Putin, who was seated in the front row of the gleaming Kremlin hall yesterday.
Some analysts did see the speech as increasing Mr Medvedev’s personal political authority. “It was not just an address to the federal assembly. It was Medvedev’s address to Putin,” said political consultant Gleb Pavlovsky.
“The speech was full of ‘the government must do this, the government should do that’. It was the president taking the leadership role in the tandem,” he added.
Mr Putin appointed Mr Medvedev as his successor in 2008, and is widely seen as likely to return to the job in 2012, though Mr Medvedev would clearly like a second term himself. He has been seeking to portray himself as a more liberal and modernising figure than Mr Putin.
However, few can guess what is the real dynamic between the two inscrutable men. Masha Lipman, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, said: “The elite is thinking, ‘okay, if you are really the leader, prove it’. A speech is not going to be enough to rally anyone around the president. He needs to show he can take actions.” – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009)