Russia deserves better than a 'mafia state'
It has been a week when Russia has rarely left the front pages. To many of us it is no surprise to read US diplomatic cables laying responsibility for Alexander Litvinenko's murder at the door of the Kremlin, or seeing in Vladimir Putin a man with an irrational attitude and "the eyes of a killer" when it comes to Chechnya, or that Ramzan Kadyrov is "a warlord, pure and simple" - but it is nonetheless a damaging week for the Russian regime's record on Chechnya.
It is here, however, that we must be careful to differentiate between two different things - the Russian government, who were justly denounced a corrupt, "mafia state" in the Wikileaks revelations, and the Russian people, who in their everyday life find their freedom of expression and rights to representation oppressed by that same state. Solely judging by Russian responses to the speech I made to the World Chechen Congress in September, those people are increasingly realising that they deserve a better government, and the rest of the world should not lump them together with the corrupt clan which is rightly being lambasted across global media at the moment.
There is a fundamental imbalance between the power of the elite and the power of the people in Russia. The fall of the tsarist regime created a vacuum for the tyranny of the Soviet Union, and democratic equilibrium has not been reached in the relatively short aftermath of the Union's collapse.
As in almost every such case the powerful elite takes advantage of this position to bolster its own benefits and control. In pursuit of their goals they find that the continued suppression of democratic processes, human rights and the rule of law become their way of living. Power corrupts, and the powerful become the enemy of the people they are supposed to serve.
Today we have numerous examples across the world of small minority elites controlling whole nation states: North Korea, China, Burma, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela. Add to these most countries in the former Soviet Union and the majority of states in Africa - the list is depressingly long. Recent history has given us examples of regimes which have risen from very modest power bases to absolute control and committed horrific abuses - warnings which we must heed.
One lesson is that democracy, despite being the best system of government we have invented, is fragile and prone to attack - it has little defence against the asymmetric assaults upon it. The other lesson is that we never win battles for good, they have to be re-fought and secured every day. That is why personal and organizational involvement and awareness and courage are imperative. If the other side succeed to demotivate or demoralize us from upholding our rights, then we have lost. We simply cannot allow that - we would be failing our obligation to our integrity, our society, our history and our future - and we must sustain the hope and the fighting spirit our common fundamental values deserve, difficult though that may be.
I am strongly opposed to the current political administration in the Kremlin and Lubyanka, and their abuse of power. However, I stress that to my core I am FOR the Russian people - their right to freedom, democracy, rule of law and all the universal values bestowed by our international human rights conventions. Everyone has a right for their own pursuit of happiness and a dependable civil society. In general, the Russian people do not enjoy these benefits under the tandem rule of Putin and Medvedev. That is why I sincerely hope that the Russian people will mobilize the self confidence, individual and collective strength it takes to allow the true voice of Russia to be heard and bring about a real and honest change.
Ivar Amundsen,
Director, Chechnya Peace Forum
http://www.chechenpress.co.uk/content/2010/12/15/main02.shtml
