| “A RIDDLE wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” This was Churchill’s famous description of Russia. But is it a good deal less complicated than that these days?
Jonathan Dimbleby recently spent two years travelling around Russia — with a TV series and a book to prove it. He is disturbed as he reflects on the experience.
“The Russians are different to us,” he says. But how? As he travels across that vast land, he discovers sloth and corruption; but, most of all, a general turning away from what Russians regard as the fanciful dreams of Western liberty. At the nub of Mr Dimbleby’s concern is the fact that they are not sleep-walking into a totalitarian state — they are welcoming it. As one Muscovite said: “We are free. It is a dictatorship, of course, but we are free.”
And, in a way, Russians are free; just as the Chinese are free. Free to make money, worship their God, and travel. In fact, they are free to do anything — as long as they do not become political.
But, if press freedom is an accurate gauge of authoritarian rule, then Russia is in trouble. There is no independent “Fourth Estate” to speak of. Twenty-one journalists were murdered in Russia last year, which puts it behind only Columbia and Iraq in the killing of dissenting writers.
Peter Hitchens — a famously disillusioned Russia-watcher — writes: “This is a place where the worst has already happened and is quite likely to happen again. Most of the people you meet will be a lot younger than they look, hurried briskly towards old age by fear, pain, loss, and shortage. Even the pretty gardens are often secret graveyards. Dig too deep in reality or metaphorically, and you will quickly find skulls and bones.”
Yet Vladimir Putin, the former President and now Prime Minister, walks on water in the popular mind for two main reasons. First, he has skilfully used perceived American aggression to revive long-held nationalist paranoia. And, second, oil. What else does he need? A demon without, gold within, and the nation is his.
Some say he is more honest than Western potentates. Leaders such as Mr Putin, and the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, do not need the public vote, and therefore do not need to pay lip service to democracy, as Western leaders must. All national leaders want the same thing in the end — the earth’s resources. This is why President Bush was keener to bring democracy to Iraq than Zimbabwe.
There are dissident voices. The distinguished biochemist Sergei Kovalev says: “It was better under Stalin. At least everyone knew it was a sham.” But, in reality, most Russians seem very aware it is a sham — and yet they like it. “Better a sham than a shambles,” they say, as another vodka goes down the hatch. “We don’t need democracy — we need strength.”
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