The time is right to challenge the regime in Russia

European Voice

Protesters are back on the streets of Moscow, but the rest of the world does not seem to care.
Twenty years ago, the new democratic leaders of Russia were left to be dragged down by the ruined economy they inherited, while the West worried only about who would repay Soviet debts. In retrospect, that was a blunder. But the lesson has not been learned. Smouldering discontent with authoritarian crony capitalism is sending fiery sparks into the streets of Moscow and some other cities. But for all the help the outside world is giving, it might as well be a row about football.

The next three months are crucial not just for Russia, but also for its neighbours. Will Vladimir Putin and his ex-KGB pals allow a free election, or even a fair one? What happens if he fails to win in the first round? The president-select may resort to dirty tricks – perhaps the creation of bogus threats from enemies at home and abroad.

The long-overdue modernisation of Russia, and the dumping of the crippling post-Soviet historical neuroses that plague foreign policy, is not just of vital importance to Russia, but to Europe, the US and the world. So why the inaction?

True, support for ‘democracy promotion’ in Russia has had patchy, even perverse results. It enables the Kremlin propaganda machine to say that human-rights and media-freedom campaigners are just the puppets of the West. The ‘opposition’ is not short of money: what it really lacks are unity, ideas, people and impact. Outsiders cannot provide that. In fact, talking about the ‘opposition’ is the wrong approach: the desire in Russia is for fairness in the political system, rather than for any particular party or individual.

Yet the apathy is stifling. From Tallinn to Tbilisi, and from Warsaw to Washington, DC, few seem to care. I went to my first demonstration outside the Soviet embassy in London in 1981. Thirty-one years later, the numbers are still small (and the faces familiar).

But anyone who cares about the cause of liberty and justice in Russia can do things, right now, to create headaches for the regime, and to encourage those who want something better. First, complain about injustice. Police arrested two leaders of the Yabloko opposition party, Maya Zavyalova and Sergei Mitrokhin, on 14 January. It is the kind of standard petty harassment that normally goes unnoticed in the outside world: Zavyalova was accused of moving a crash barrier in order that the protestors – all 350 of them – could gather round the statue of the poet-diplomat Aleksandr Griboyedov.

It would be nice to see a few ambassadors (perhaps including the US’s new man in Moscow, Michael McFaul) turning up for their court hearing, or even complaining formally. If small abuses of power go unchallenged, it clears the way for bigger ones against more important targets.

Secondly, foreign governments should impose visa bans on the 60 named individuals on the ‘Magnitsky list’. These are the people who carried out a $230 million (€182m) fraud against the Russian taxpayer, and then murdered the lawyer – Sergei Magnitsky – who exposed it. (Read more about it on russian-untouchables.com.) The case epitomises everything that is wrong with Russia under Putin: grotesque corruption, brutality towards the weak, impunity for wrong-doers, collusion between officialdom and gangsterdom, sham accountability and more besides. Disinviting Putin and his pals from the London Olympics would help too.

Third, it is high time to open money-laundering investigations into the huge sums flowing from Russia to Western financial centres. The looting of Russia, by natural-resource companies, and by the huge rent-collection machine of the state bureaucracy, comes with the connivance of banks, lawyers, accountants and bourses in supposedly respectable Western jurisdictions. That disgrace cannot end soon enough.

The writer is central and eastern Europe correspondent of The Economist. срочный займ на карту hairy girl https://zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php займ на карту