At Russia Profile’s expert panel this week, Vladimir Belaeff of the Global Society Institute and Ethan S. Burger, of the Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention at the University of Wollongong, Australia, debate whether it’s possible that Russia’s recent show of updating its foreign policy by opening up to the West could also seep into its domestic politics. That’s a question many of us are probably puzzling over right now. Because so many recent moves by Russia can, at least on the surface, appear contradictory. On the one hand, Russia is offering to work with NATO again and helping put pressure on Iran to be more transparent about its nucler program; on the other, it’s promising the country cooperation in the energy sector. And while Medvedev continues to emphasize modernization as one of his key priorities, some recent developments, such as last week’s draft law that would give Russia’s security services more powers, appear to be pushing the country back in the direction of totalitarianism.

Belaeff argues that modernization will be slow process:

A persistent problem for Russia is the Soviet legacy in its administrative apparatus. Every official over 45 years of age was shaped by Soviet education and attitudes. Also, many of the more mobile administrators of the now defunct Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and Komsomol made a clever switch to the Soviet administrative ranks in the waning years of the Soviet Union. They preserve the habits and outlook of late Soviet “zastoy,” or stagnation. One needs to recognize among them the adherents of the heirs of Soviet policies and ideology – the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), which still garners 11 percent of votes in national elections, and even more in some regions.