Yegor Gaidar: “The short term will be very difficult for Russian democracy”

On June 15, 2005, the website of the Political News Agency in Nizhny Novgorod published a speech by Yegor Gaidar, director of the Institute for the Transitional Period, at a meeting of the "Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club" on the prospects for liberalism in Russia, which took place on June 13, 2005 in Nizhny Novgorod.

Why in Russia today is bad with freedom - the basic concept of liberalism, the author asks. And he answers this question like this. The current Russian situation is characterized by a combination of three factors that pose serious risks to liberal tendencies in the political and economic spheres.

The first of these risks is that we were the center of the empire, and we have a severe form of the post-imperial syndrome , which should pass in 5-10 years. A post-revolutionary consciousness is superimposed on the post-imperial syndrome (according to E. Gaidar, a full-scale revolution - unlike "the rest of the countries of the Soviet empire" - occurred only in Russia). These two "fundamental political risks for Russia associated with the preservation of at least some elements of democratic freedoms" are superimposed by a third one - high oil prices.

All these three factors are transitory and sooner or later they will be overcome. The long-term outlook for Russian democracy is optimistic. As for the short-term outlook, Russian democracy will be tested in the coming years. But, however, E. Gaidar believes, we can talk about no more than 10-15 years.

Sources

• Gaidar E. In Russia, freedom is bad // APN in Nizhny Novgorod. 2005. June 15.