Not run by multi-billionaires

I bring to your attention a statement by Elfren Cruz in his article “Pandemic worsens income inequality” (Breakthrough, June 25, 2020).

The author suggested that “Russia has lost its revolutionary spirit and is controlled by capitalists and multi-billionaires.” My short response to this is that Mr. Cruz is lost in time. It is generally strange to speak of “revolutionary spirit” in the 21st century, because this kind of political ideology was much more common in the second half of the 19th century or the first half of the 20th century. While revolutionary ideology was to some extent part of the political culture and mentality of the Soviet Union, it has never been the case in post-Soviet Russia.

It is also important to consider that Russia has already had three revolutions, which is more than any other country. All of them were bloody and destructive. Thus a very long time ago Russia has transcended revolution as a concept in favor of evolutionary development. This is why the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a peaceful process although many foreign analysts expected it to result in civil war.

More importantly, when it comes to the assumption that Russia is controlled by “capitalists and billionaires,” it is indeed quite far from the truth. To be more precise, it was true some 20 years ago. It was the time which came right after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when the newly elected democratic government looked up to the West and basically allowed foreign nations to dictate how to run the country. As a result, Russia was sliding deeper and deeper into chaos and lawlessness. The actual power in the country started shifting from the penniless legitimate government to those “capitalists and multi-billionaires” whose money became nearly the only source of authority in the country.

Nothing could change this until Russia’s current President came into power. One of his most important promises was to make big business socially responsible. Everyone realized that its direct involvement into the political process was a destabilizing factor because, as the author of the article pointed out quite correctly, it worsens income inequality. This is one of the reasons why the people rallied behind President Putin in the first place. It was not easy, but he finally managed to break the oligarchs, as they are called in Russia, from trying to use their resources to push their own political agenda. – Natalia Linovitskaya,  Press Attaché, Embassy of the Russian Federation, Makati City