Paul Goble blogs about a Vedomosti article which reveals the early findings of a new report, interviewing some 100 different members of the ruling United Russia party:

The Moscow newspaper obtained an advance copy of the report and quotes
liberally from it. According to the Institute study, “it is difficult
to recognize the political system of Russia as a liberal democracy.”
Governors are appointed in much the same way that “obkom first
secretaries were in communist times, and the media now resembles that
of the stagnation period.

There is now “an imitation of party
democracy” of the kind that existed a generation ago, the Institute
report continues, and just like in Soviet times, in Russia today, “it
is better not to have any dealings with the militia,” whose members are
corrupt and largely unrestrained by law or the courts.

But having said this, the report argues that “the democratization of
the political system of Russia cannot be a priority.” Indeed, its
authors insist, promoting the dissemination of liberal values and
practices would be “harmful and useless.” Instead, it says, what the
country’s leaders should be seeking is “effective” governance.

That
is especially the case now, the report continues, during the economic
crisis, a time when leadership requires “charisma,” something that does
not fit all that well “with ordinary competitive democracy.” And
Russians must recognize that “democratization is far from the only path
to effective rule.”

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