On this day nine years ago, Vladimir Putin was sworn into office, bearing lofty promises:
“In the traditional midnight New Year’s Eve address to the nation, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s new acting President, promised Russians that he would follow the democratic path and guarantee citizens’ basic freedoms. The sudden leap of Mr Putin, 47, to the head of the Russian nation came after Boris Yeltsin’s surprise resignation at noon Moscow time. ‘Freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of the mass media — these basic freedoms will be reliably protected by the State,’ Mr Putin said in the address.”
The Times, January 1, 2000
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I congratulate Putin for pursuing a robust macroeconomic and industrial policy, regaining some of the international influence and respect squandered away by Gorbachev and Yeltsin, affirming democracy and freedom, and kicking out most seditious Western-backed stooges from power, and wish him a very happy New Year.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here – believe or not, we welcome a diversity of opinions.However, it would be interesting to hear some more specifics on this appraisal. For example, in terms of macroeconomic and industrial policy, things look rather bleak. The Putin government didn’t really take advantage of nearly a decade of strong growth and high oil prices to diversify the economy and deepen the market – hence when oil lost 75% of its value, the RTS dropped by 73% and more than one quarter of the reserves were depleted.International influence and respect? Perhaps the former could be argued to be true if only for money and arms, but the latter seems painfully evident in the lack of support for the recognition of the Georgian provinces (Nicaragua and Hamas don’t command great diplomatic clout, in my mind).The line about affirming democracy and freedom is openly in humor, no?I think if I were to be praising the Putin era, which I will decline to, I would focus on the relative success of foreign policy – new relationships from Latin America to Africa, the capture of Central Asia, and the successful splitting of Europe to advance the interests of state energy.But perhaps the point of the comment was just provocation of those traditionally critical of the government, which is also fine.
Re-energy dependency: quote from another comment I made on the same topic,”I interpret it differently. The main reason development was “energy led” was because global prices for commodities became very favorable and as such skewed the statistics. When in reality the government pursued policies aimed at industrial growth (preventing a too rapid ruble appreciation, creating special economic zones, requiring foreign auto companies to source from local suppliers after a certain period after opening their factories, etc). Talking of the automobile sector, annual automobile production rose from 1.0mn in the early 2000’s, to 1.7mn in 2007 with a huge amount of extra capacity projected to come on-stream in the next few years.To make a very crude illustration: assuming Russia produces 6 units of oil at 10$ and 1 unit of cars at 40$ in 2000 for a GDP of 100$, and 9 units of oil at 100$ and 2 units of cars at 50$ in 2007 for a GDP of 1000$. It would appear that its economy’s “reliance” on energy has increased from 60% to 90$, and is true in the sense of nominal GDP (and the energy dominated stockmarket), whereas in a real sense the importance of energy declined. And of course most of the economic things for which Putin is critiqued for have affected precisely the energy industry, e.g. high taxes on oil exports slowed the industry’s growth, but ironically actually lessened Russia’s energy dependence from what it otherwise would have been! (As well as leaving more oil in the ground for future extraction, which is also a form of saving).”Re-RTS: unlike in the Anglo-Saxon shareholder economies, the RTS possesses little value as an indicator of economic strength in Russia.Re-influence: according to international polls, Russia has come to be viewed more favorably amongst global citizens. The reason few supported the recognition is due to the fact that the West regards Kosovo as a “special case” (in that it fits its interests) while the rest of the world places bigger importance on territorial integrity of states, no matter how criminal their actions.Re-democracy: no. E.g. http://www.npetro.net/resources/opendemocracy.pdf, and plenty more material on my blog.