Nano -Tepel

Russian society now resembles a child who, having lurked his breath, is waiting: the father, having come home from work, stroke the head or, conversely, will break? Despite the fact that the “father” has two faces - president and super -premiere - the expectation of both candy, and belt, or both at once, equally reasonably. Nevertheless, in the first of all, this shaky hope is poured at least for some changes. The grounds for which - if you do not take into account such euphemisms as “the future of the country, the interests of the people” (see the discussion on page 8) - there is practically no. There is a “nanotepel” in the form of the right words and high -profile statements caused by the need of the new president to find a certain image from the parent, plus the inevitable struggle of the applied clans

What is the asset for today? Well, of course, first of all, the decision of the Constitutional Court in the case of Manana Aslanmazyan (interviews with a member of the KS Gadis Gadzhiev - on page 26) and then the following closing of a completely absurd criminal case against the founder of Internyus. The fact that this decision could not do without an appropriate nod from the Kremlin is speaks quite openly on the sidelines. The verdict was preceded by a positive conclusion on the complaint of Aslamazyan by the legal department of the president and - which is also not surprising - negative from the government. The name of Manana Aslanmazyan, whose organization is completely destroyed, and with it the whole institution of preparing journalists for the regions of the country is now used by both power personalities on foreign trips and interviews. And this alarms most of all: as if the absolutely fair words of President Medvedev, he said in Germany that the media we have under the oppression of “administrative devices of different levels”, as well as about “legal nihilism” and the need to revive the power system independent from other branches, did not remain only with words that dear comrades will carry a portrait of Manana Aslamazyan.

Meanwhile, there is no progress in other political affairs - Mikhail Khodorkovsky, scientists of Sutyagin and Danilov in the case of the journalist The New Times Natalia Moral - has not yet been observed. ¹ But the arrests of investigators who initiated or investigated economic crimes committed under the auspices of high people in uniform have been observed.

Across the dad

What else? Well, of course, the statement of the first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov at the Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, the meaning of which the state must leave the economy (read on page 12). Well, yes? The question is, and what all previous ones thought at least 5 years, when more than 50% of the economy (about state representatives in large businesses-on page 16) and created state corporations, reproducing the situation of the late 80s, when the officials were owned by the country's main assets and therefore successfully stole from fixed assets, transferring all the liquid to offshores for offshores for offshores. Rubezh. (About the liberal loneliness of the Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin, read on page 36.) It turns out, despite the sobs about Russia, “which rises from the knees”, again played our national national sport: “To create problems, and then heroically overcome them.” It is clear that the main source of this liberal rhetoric is the unfolding struggle between the clans lining up under the Kremlin and the White House. ² that in itself is not bad-at least some kind of, if not political, then the competition of elites, inevitably spilled in a public field. The illustration of this is the undisguised irritation of Putin Prime Minister, on the open part of the government meeting of his deputy Shuvalov (so that it gets into newspapers), obviously, for the liberal stans, who made the first deputy prime minister the hope of the entire progressive business community. If the rhetoric is put at the forefront of the new presidency, then, you see, and United Russia will soon speak on the sovereign’s hideting with the liberal (read on page 6).

Signals VS meanings

The problem, however, is that the words should follow real deeds. Officials are cunning people, they catch signals, and then wait: if the words do not follow the orders - on paper and with signatures, then the signals sent - no more than the noise on the air, the meaning of which: “Guys! Do not worry, everything remains the same. ” And there is also evidence that they already perceive loud statements as a white noise.

Journalists who visited the economic forum in St. Petersburg tell: the new president of the protocol and security service - and these are quite trained people - called only a bear cub: "Now the bear will pass and we will open the doors." Or - close. Will the real change of regime be followed by the liberal rhetoric - a big question, which is devoted to the main theme of this number.

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1 The New Times in No. 45 of December 17, 2007 formulated his list of conditions for then the successor to Medvedev, the execution of which will allow us to talk about him as a liberal.
2 About the problems of the dual power of The New Times wrote in detail in No. 45 for 2007, and in No. 7, 12, 19, 20 for 2008.