Just democracy

Dmitry Medvedev in Davos preferred a talk about the country's prospects to talking about his own future

First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev last Saturday, a year and two months before the presidential elections, appeared at the World Economic Forum in Davos before the global political and economic elite as a possible candidate for the post of President of Russia. In any case, this is how the world media attests to him. Mr. Medvedev himself spoke on key issues of Russia's development, its relations with other countries, and the country's positioning in the world as a whole. He spoke in detail and willingly, for example, about the problems of establishing democracy in Russia, about the continuity of power, or about the Middle East settlement and the Kosovo problem. By the way, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is considered by political scientists as another possible successor to Mr. Putin, has never restrained himself in speaking on topics seemingly unrelated to his official duties.

At Davos, Dmitry Medvedev, as expected, stopped direct conversations on the topic of his possible presidency, saying that he does not engage in abstract discussions about his political future, since this distracts him from his main work. However, he did not at all refuse to talk about his vision of the country’s political future. To the delight, or perhaps to the disappointment, of his listeners, he made it clear that after Vladimir Putin leaves the presidency, Russia will maintain continuity of course. “The world today is so interconnected that it is extremely difficult to expect any sharp changes in the policies of certain states, even with a change of political elites. In any case, democratic states, in my opinion, differ from non-democratic ones in that if other forces, other parties come to power, continuity of policies is maintained,” said the First Deputy Prime Minister. Russia, in his opinion, is a democratic state. Moreover, democratic, as he noted, without any additional definitions. Thus, Dmitry Medvedev continued the correspondence discussion around the term “sovereign democracy”.

“Today we are building new institutions based on the basic principles of full democracy. Democracy - without unnecessary additional definitions. Effective democracy - based on the principles of a market economy, the rule of law and the accountability of government to the rest of society. We understand well that not a single non-democratic state has yet become truly prosperous. For one simple reason: freedom is better than lack of freedom,” said the First Deputy Prime Minister, speaking at the forum. Later, at a press conference, he said that “when they try to attach something to democracy in definitions, it can lead analysts and commentators to think that it is a surrogate democracy.” “I believe that there is real democracy in Russia, just like those who talk about sovereign democracy (apparently meaning Mr. Surkov -- Ed. ). This kind of game does not add anything to the terms. What is more important is the real political situation, the real political regime that exists in a particular country,” said the First Deputy Prime Minister.

However, Dmitry Medvedev spoke most of all at the forum about the Russian economy. Always at such forums, Russian officials describe its prospects in upbeat tones, which is understandable: foreign investment will never hurt. The First Deputy Prime Minister was no exception. According to him, in the next two years Russia will take sixth place in terms of GDP (in terms of purchasing power parity), and by the end of this year it will take first place in the world in oil production, ahead of Saudi Arabia (today Russia is the world leader in oil production). gas and fourth on the planet in electricity production). At the same time, Mr. Medvedev did not fail to note that Russia’s efforts in recent years in the energy market are aimed at “establishing clear and stable rules of the game, eliminating opaque and time-unjustified pricing systems with transit countries.” “There will no longer be free gas for anyone,” Mr. Medvedev said bluntly.

Many forum participants were concerned about the question of how far the Russian state would go to increase its role in the economy. They did not receive a definite answer. “It is obvious that this role should be pragmatic, this determines its limits,” the First Deputy Prime Minister said vaguely, adding that state participation in the economy “will be regulated only by purely utilitarian considerations, no more and no less.” However, a little later, Mr. Medvedev preferred to be more specific. “We do not have and cannot have a nationalization itch,” he stated.

In turn, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development, German Gref, who accompanied Mr. Medvedev as part of a large and high-ranking delegation, pleased private investors, without exaggeration, if not taken aback. “Eventually we will come to a situation where the entire economy will be private. Therefore, there is no danger of further nationalization of the Russian economy. All the sectors that we will state will ultimately be ineffective, and we will be forced to sell them,” the minister noted. However, a logical question arises: why transfer more and more assets into state ownership, as has been the case in recent years, if the government knows in advance that they will lose in efficiency? Apparently they want to win in something else. For example, when selling. Of course, the initiators of such denationalization will be accused of a new redistribution of property. But no one in Russia has yet suffered much from such accusations.

Mikhail VOROBYEV