Wow. A very important article in the Washington Post by Lev Gudkov, Igor Klyamkin, Georgy Satarov and Lilia Shevtsova. More comments coming later.
We object, for example, to the basic proposition of calling for a return to realpolitik because some believe that the worsening of Russian-American relations was mainly caused by Washington's insistence on "tying policies to values." The result, some American "realists" argue, is that the United States needs to build a new relationship with Russia based on "common interests and common threats." Yet in blaming the Bush administration for trying to "teach" Russia about democracy, these realists appear to accept the official Russian position. In our view, America has ignored the problems of democracy and civil society in Russia, but even turning a blind eye did not prevent the breakdown in the U.S.-Russian relationship -- and now Obama is essentially being asked to treat Russia as though it is incapable of democratic transformation.
While there is anti-democratic sentiment here, such feelings are not ubiquitous. In fact, nearly two-thirds of Russians would like to see the establishment of democracy and the rule of law, according to a 2008 Levada Center poll. The ruling elite oppose the development of democratic institutions, but the key is that members of the elite are more than ready to integrate into the Western world on an individually beneficial basis; they will do everything in their power to "protect" the rest of Russian society from the perils of such integration.
To be clear, we are not calling on our American democratic colleagues to "promote" democracy in Russia. Such efforts are counterproductive and ultimately serve only to discredit Russian democrats by helping the propaganda machine color them as agents of the West. But we do not understand how one can hope for cooperation while ignoring Russia's internal development and the principles on which the state functions.
So, two thirds of Russians would like to see the establishment of democracy.
How many of them believe they have it already?
How many of them want the particular concept advocated by Gudkov, Klyamkin, Satarov, and Shevtsova?
And does the remaining third reject democracy, or what?
Rkka, if this pool is right, at least 2/3 of Russians don't think they have it already. The remaining 1/3 presumably includes people who think they do have it already, and people who don't want it ('Russia is a special case', 'we prefer authoritarian leaders / soverign democracy', etc.), though I would also like to see what the other categories in the poll were. The concept of democracy proposed by the authors -- you can have a look -- looks to me like the one we all accept.