PUTIN’S CARDBOARD DEMOCRACY
Bluff: to mislead by a display of strength, self confidence, e.g. in poker to deceive by a show of confidence in the strength of one’s own cards.
I
The Russian state has long been a master of bluff, bluster and deception. From the painted façades of Potemkin villages to the model factories and kindergartens shown to visitors of Stalin’s workers paradise.
These days the Russian façade is less sophisticated and elaborate, it consists merely in the pretence that Russia is now a normal democratic state, albeit with a Slavic twist; a society with free elections and healthy civil society. Putin calls this cardboard model, ‘sovereign democracy.’
This façade may be unsophisticated but it is not cheap, in 2011 the Russian government spent £1.4 billion on international propaganda.[1] For this money Putin has purchased, amongst much else, a slick TV operation in the form of RT (Russia Today) and The Voice of Russia radio station.
Both affect a highly professional air, though sometimes VOR can be somewhat obvious in its propaganda line. RT is allowed a great deal more freedom than any internal Russian TV station, though a red line has been drawn when it comes to criticising Putin. But for all the lively, if highly slanted debate both media operations are as fake as an ACME tunnel in a Roadrunner cartoon. Russia is neither a normal democratic state, in any meaningful sense of the word, nor possesses a healthy civil society, the rule of law or a free press and media able to hold politicians to account and speak truth to power. It is state run by and in the interests of a small clique of oligarchs headed by Vladimir Putin, in turn supported by a small army in the form of the FSB, resurgent child of the KGB. Put more succinctly it is a ‘Mafia state.’ It is this operation of this Kleptocracy that is described in Luke Harding’s book of the same name.
Many who recognise this description imagine that this is purely an internal matter for the Russian people, failing to appreciate the degree to which the Russian state’s descent into a criminal conspiracy against democratic values and civilised norms of behaviour is polluting the whole of Europe itself.
Anyone living in London should be particularly concerned; Russians now form one of London’s biggest communities, numbers being estimated between 200,000 to 400,000 people. Many of these are Russian bureaucrats whose actual salaries could not support the lifestyle they enjoy. They are not good people. Russian dirty money may already have entered the arteries of the British political system, whilst scores have already been settled, in Mafia infighting, on London streets, most notoriously in the case of Alexander Litvinenko.
IIFor reasons I turn too now, this criminal violence exported to the streets of London look set to escalate.
The corruption and criminality at the heart of the Russian state leads to instability and insecurity amongst its ruling elite; Mafia states are not stable ones, Don’s do not sleep soundly in their beds, even if they are called Vladimir Putin.
It is no accident that Russia corrupt ruling clique choose to invest in London real estate and invest their money abroad. They do not trust Russian institutions, for a good reason, they run some these institutions and know the scale of corruption involved. Consequently families are settled abroad, children educated in expensive English private schools and capital accrued in Russia is invested elsewhere. Indeed invested anywhere where the rule of law prevails and ‘tax officials’ cannot turn up in the middle of the night and seize all of your assets.
In Putin’s Russia no oligarch’s ill gotten gains can ever be deemed completely safe, as oligarchs, like Moscow boyars of old, jostle with each other for wealth, influence, power and control. They can find themselves rising ‘irresistibly’ one minute, in the dock, penniless, facing a long stretch, the next. Politics in Russia being a zero sum game not even Putin can feel completely confident of the security of his own position, or more importantly for him, the security of his wealth. This explains the extraordinary dance performed with Mr Medvedev that saw them swapping Prime Minister and Presidential roles, then back again.[2]
The exact extent of Mr Putin’s wealth is unknown; it has been estimated as much as $40 billion. This seems a ludicrously large sum, though given the wealth of some of Putin’s more minor cronies may not be wholly wide of the mark. More interesting is where it is invested; some undoubtedly will be locked into the structure of Russian crony capitalism, the rest, and I suspect a very large amount indeed, will be invested abroad. This last point is an important one and hints at the Achilles heel of Putin’s Mafia state.
III Here is a joke of sorts. Q: How do you put Vladimir Putin on edge? A: Start talking about financial transparency.
The systematic and comprehensive theft from the Russian people that occurred since the collapse of the Soviet Union was made possible by the opaque nature of the privatisation process and the deliberately murky structure of Russian crony capitalism.[3] However although the big names be came known, names like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Alexander Lebedev, Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky, how they exactly acquired their wealth has remained wrapped in layers of obscurity; whilst one name has never appeared on the list and that is the name of Mr Big himself, Vladimir Putin. Where his wealth lies remains something of a mystery. Putin needs things to remain opaque to safeguard the trail of theft involved and why any mention of transparency makes him nervous.
Of course within Russian he need have no worry. On his watch financial transparency simply is not going to happen. However Russia is not an island and, as noted above, much wealth has been secreted abroad. With the Google, Starbucks, and Amazon tax scandals the demand for reform and transparency are growing. Indeed the issue was raised at the G8 in Northern Ireland.
Now I am not naïve, and don’t imagine that the corporate world is suddenly going to flower into a golden age of transparency. Still the rules of the game may be beginning to shift. Ominously for Russian oligarchs the demand for greater corporate transparency is growing and if Russian business wants to operate in the west then they are going to have to change their culture to accommodate these demands. If, and admittedly it is a big if, we get serious about financial transparency, including clamping down on tax havens, this will present a serious threat to the wealth of Putin and his cronies.
IVPutin’s Mafia state would matter less if it were a small state on the fringes of Europe but it is a major world and European power, a source of much of Europe’s and the worlds gas and petroleum supplies. Anyone with concerns about the security of Europe’s energy supply should be alarmed that these resources are in the hands of gangsters. Meanwhile the Putin poison continues to seep out, not only infecting its close neighbours but spreading as far as Spain, Cyprus and the streets of London.
As Harding points out in the days of the Communist apparatchiks the West had little leverage, now this is no longer true. Putin like the wealth and power they have accumulated, the only risk arising is from demands that Russia operates on a level capitalist playing field. If western governments wanted they could grip Putin by the roubles. Will they risk it?
One test of this country’s willingness to stand up to the Russian state is the Litvinenko case and it’s not looking good. The Labour party broke of cooperation with the FSB and stood up to Putin’s clumsy attempt to bully this country. Since the Coalition came to power this policy has been reversed and there are disturbing that a deal was done to knobble Litvinenko’s inquest.[4]
It is essential for the health of our own democracy that maximum pressure is placed upon the government to stand up to Russian pressure on this matter. The truth about Litvinenko’s murder must be exposed. If the FSB get away with the murder of a British citizen on British soil they will be emboldened to continue to extend the reach of their criminal operations.
CLOSING NOTE
I began writing this as the diplomatic manoeuvres over Syria between Putin and the West - in the form of the US Britain and France- concluded. Putin is receiving widespread acclaim and seems to have pulled of a major strategic and propaganda coup. The losers are those in the Free Syrian Army fighting the brutal Assad regime.Some of the praise for Putin has been truly grotesque. The idea of this disgusting man as a fighter for peace and the rule of law is beyond parody. When reading some of the comments at the foot of an article that challenges this narrative fills me with despair.[5] Though it is worth remembering that amongst the useful idiots, as Harding points out, some of those posting comments are almost certainly paid by the Kremlin to place such comments in the western media.
[1]Mafia
State
I
The Russian state has long been a master of bluff, bluster and deception. From the painted façades of Potemkin villages to the model factories and kindergartens shown to visitors of Stalin’s workers paradise.
These days the Russian façade is less sophisticated and elaborate, it consists merely in the pretence that Russia is now a normal democratic state, albeit with a Slavic twist; a society with free elections and healthy civil society. Putin calls this cardboard model, ‘sovereign democracy.’
This façade may be unsophisticated but it is not cheap, in 2011 the Russian government spent £1.4 billion on international propaganda.[1] For this money Putin has purchased, amongst much else, a slick TV operation in the form of RT (Russia Today) and The Voice of Russia radio station.
Both affect a highly professional air, though sometimes VOR can be somewhat obvious in its propaganda line. RT is allowed a great deal more freedom than any internal Russian TV station, though a red line has been drawn when it comes to criticising Putin. But for all the lively, if highly slanted debate both media operations are as fake as an ACME tunnel in a Roadrunner cartoon. Russia is neither a normal democratic state, in any meaningful sense of the word, nor possesses a healthy civil society, the rule of law or a free press and media able to hold politicians to account and speak truth to power. It is state run by and in the interests of a small clique of oligarchs headed by Vladimir Putin, in turn supported by a small army in the form of the FSB, resurgent child of the KGB. Put more succinctly it is a ‘Mafia state.’ It is this operation of this Kleptocracy that is described in Luke Harding’s book of the same name.
Many who recognise this description imagine that this is purely an internal matter for the Russian people, failing to appreciate the degree to which the Russian state’s descent into a criminal conspiracy against democratic values and civilised norms of behaviour is polluting the whole of Europe itself.
Anyone living in London should be particularly concerned; Russians now form one of London’s biggest communities, numbers being estimated between 200,000 to 400,000 people. Many of these are Russian bureaucrats whose actual salaries could not support the lifestyle they enjoy. They are not good people. Russian dirty money may already have entered the arteries of the British political system, whilst scores have already been settled, in Mafia infighting, on London streets, most notoriously in the case of Alexander Litvinenko.
 |
| Litvinenko on his death bed after being poisoned. |
IIFor reasons I turn too now, this criminal violence exported to the streets of London look set to escalate.
The corruption and criminality at the heart of the Russian state leads to instability and insecurity amongst its ruling elite; Mafia states are not stable ones, Don’s do not sleep soundly in their beds, even if they are called Vladimir Putin.
It is no accident that Russia corrupt ruling clique choose to invest in London real estate and invest their money abroad. They do not trust Russian institutions, for a good reason, they run some these institutions and know the scale of corruption involved. Consequently families are settled abroad, children educated in expensive English private schools and capital accrued in Russia is invested elsewhere. Indeed invested anywhere where the rule of law prevails and ‘tax officials’ cannot turn up in the middle of the night and seize all of your assets.
In Putin’s Russia no oligarch’s ill gotten gains can ever be deemed completely safe, as oligarchs, like Moscow boyars of old, jostle with each other for wealth, influence, power and control. They can find themselves rising ‘irresistibly’ one minute, in the dock, penniless, facing a long stretch, the next. Politics in Russia being a zero sum game not even Putin can feel completely confident of the security of his own position, or more importantly for him, the security of his wealth. This explains the extraordinary dance performed with Mr Medvedev that saw them swapping Prime Minister and Presidential roles, then back again.[2]
 |
| Putin and Medvedev |
III Here is a joke of sorts. Q: How do you put Vladimir Putin on edge? A: Start talking about financial transparency.
The systematic and comprehensive theft from the Russian people that occurred since the collapse of the Soviet Union was made possible by the opaque nature of the privatisation process and the deliberately murky structure of Russian crony capitalism.[3] However although the big names be came known, names like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Alexander Lebedev, Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky, how they exactly acquired their wealth has remained wrapped in layers of obscurity; whilst one name has never appeared on the list and that is the name of Mr Big himself, Vladimir Putin. Where his wealth lies remains something of a mystery. Putin needs things to remain opaque to safeguard the trail of theft involved and why any mention of transparency makes him nervous.
 |
| Boris Berezovsky who famously fell out with Putin and was recently found dead. |
Now I am not naïve, and don’t imagine that the corporate world is suddenly going to flower into a golden age of transparency. Still the rules of the game may be beginning to shift. Ominously for Russian oligarchs the demand for greater corporate transparency is growing and if Russian business wants to operate in the west then they are going to have to change their culture to accommodate these demands. If, and admittedly it is a big if, we get serious about financial transparency, including clamping down on tax havens, this will present a serious threat to the wealth of Putin and his cronies.
IVPutin’s Mafia state would matter less if it were a small state on the fringes of Europe but it is a major world and European power, a source of much of Europe’s and the worlds gas and petroleum supplies. Anyone with concerns about the security of Europe’s energy supply should be alarmed that these resources are in the hands of gangsters. Meanwhile the Putin poison continues to seep out, not only infecting its close neighbours but spreading as far as Spain, Cyprus and the streets of London.
As Harding points out in the days of the Communist apparatchiks the West had little leverage, now this is no longer true. Putin like the wealth and power they have accumulated, the only risk arising is from demands that Russia operates on a level capitalist playing field. If western governments wanted they could grip Putin by the roubles. Will they risk it?
One test of this country’s willingness to stand up to the Russian state is the Litvinenko case and it’s not looking good. The Labour party broke of cooperation with the FSB and stood up to Putin’s clumsy attempt to bully this country. Since the Coalition came to power this policy has been reversed and there are disturbing that a deal was done to knobble Litvinenko’s inquest.[4]
It is essential for the health of our own democracy that maximum pressure is placed upon the government to stand up to Russian pressure on this matter. The truth about Litvinenko’s murder must be exposed. If the FSB get away with the murder of a British citizen on British soil they will be emboldened to continue to extend the reach of their criminal operations.
CLOSING NOTE
I began writing this as the diplomatic manoeuvres over Syria between Putin and the West - in the form of the US Britain and France- concluded. Putin is receiving widespread acclaim and seems to have pulled of a major strategic and propaganda coup. The losers are those in the Free Syrian Army fighting the brutal Assad regime.Some of the praise for Putin has been truly grotesque. The idea of this disgusting man as a fighter for peace and the rule of law is beyond parody. When reading some of the comments at the foot of an article that challenges this narrative fills me with despair.[5] Though it is worth remembering that amongst the useful idiots, as Harding points out, some of those posting comments are almost certainly paid by the Kremlin to place such comments in the western media.
[1]
[2] Yeltsin only felt able to
stand down after been granted immunity from prosecution by Putin. Putin cannot
feel 100% secure in his own position should he stand down, not to say that
avarice is the only motive for Putin wanting to stay President, he likes
wielding power and he likes people being afraid of him.
[4] The Foreign Secretary,
William Hague, had invoked Public Interest Immunity to prevent the testament of
the security services – MI5 and MI6 –being heard at the inquest. Under the
rules, a coroner has no right to hear that evidence. This effectively rules out
any evidence linking his murder to the FSB and the Russian
State
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