Some more shots are exchanged over the realism vs. liberalism issue. From Paul Goble's Window on Eurasia:
In an essay posted on Grani.ru today, Irina Pavlova points out that "the post-Soviet powers that be have done everything to revile and marginalize the liberal idea in Russia and those few liberals who were and remain the true supporters of this idea," something that the liberals themselves assisted by their involvement in the nomenklatura privatization of the 1990s.
But with the coming to power of Vladimir Putin in 2000 and his efforts to demonize that period and "strengthen the regime," the situation became even more dire for liberals as the Russian government moved in a direction which even its apologists in Russia and the West say is "little distinguished from a dictatorship."
That the Kremlin should have done so is no surprise, Pavlova continues, but "a particular irony in the situation is that by its very actions directed at the strengthening of an authoritarian regime, the Russian powers that be have acquired many allies in the West," including those Russian liberals had thought they could count on.
The occasion for Pavlova's commentary is Anatol Lieven's article entitled "Russia's Limousine Liberals" in the current issue of "The National Interest." In that article, the British writer sharply criticizes Russian liberals for their criticism of the contemporary Russian political system.
On the one hand, Lieven accuses the Russian liberals of failing to acknowledge that the current Russian regime, however much they dislike it, enjoys the overwhelming support of the Russian population. And on the other, he argues they are simply seeking to gain power for themselves rather than to promote the more open system that they claim to want.
No need to demonize the 1990s, the facts speak for themselves. Premature deaths ran into the millions, savings were destroyed, whole industries asset-stripped, and the Russian livestock herd declined by ~16 million, indicating the mass slaughter of the assets of that industry.
And the USG facilitated the circumvention of democratic opposition in the Duma, preferring to impose the Washington Consensus by Yeltsinian decree rather than face political opposition arising from the Russian people. Yeah, and the OSCE blessed Yeltsn's massively rigged 1996 presidential elections.
Fact is, our side has no ground to speak about the deficiencies of Putinian democracy.
That's very well put. What is wrong is the assumption, by Putin's "decorative democracy", that it was the freer, more democratic atmosphere of those years that was responsible for it. As you pointed out, the lack of firmer support (including economical support) for the huge problems that the failure of the USSR economy threw onto the Russians led to an economically chaotic period. This is not caused by democracy -- and the many economically sound democracies in the West show that these are independent things.
What is really sad is the attempt to connect the two. As if only a "soverign (decorative) democracy" could keep Russia afloat.
Now, I don't understand one thing -- "our side" (not really mine, I'm not American) did certainly lose the opportunity of helping Russia out. It should have supported it more, but it didn't. But how exactly does this mean we can't criticize Putin's decorative democracy? Authoritarianism is authoritarianism, and it always deserves criticism.
Maybe you're suggesting that the West is not acknowledging the role it played in allowing the desperate situation in Russia to make it go towards authoritarianism -- i.e. the curious thought that the West's lack of support for Russia during its economical woes may have led to Putin's rise? In that case I agree with you.
(I've always wondered why Yeltsin picked Putin, what he thought he was doing. I hope some historian will shed some light on this issue some day.)
Go ahead and criticize. Just understand that the Russian government and people believe that our criticism is not intended to help them, and that our criticism is destructive, not constructive.
And that's what our record in Russia indicates.