Marat Gelman: authoritarianism

The famous galleryman, developer of the Cultural Alliance program, Marat Gelman, in an interview with Polit.ru, expressed confidence: the situation in Russia is far from non -alternative. But to change the political course, Gelman believes, the authorities must be sober up.

Marat Alexandrovich, a number of unprecedented laws were recently adopted in Russia. This refers to laws regarding the tightening of punishments for violations during rallies, changes in the laws of the media, NPOs and the return of criminal prosecution for slander. How do you think these steps determine today the Russian political field?

It is determined very much, because these were the first laws after Putin’s entry into the presidency. And now there is a feeling that this is the main vector of the new Putin policy - a decrease in freedoms. It was a short period from December to March, when it seemed that some forces would still seem. But that period did not just end, but sharply turned into its own opposite.

What can this lead to, what do you think?

To the final loss of image. It is clear that a couple more such laws, and Putin will look like Saddam Hussein or Lukashenko.

And what is connected with the fact that the authorities have actually take up the whip today than for the gingerbread?

Well, there are two options, and all are bad. The first that Putin is just inadequate as a person, and we are now dealing with a completely different person, and not with the person who was, say, 4 years ago. This person is very vengeful, besides the fact that ambitious. This man may have decided that he was almost anointed of God, and his every word is worth the weight of gold. There is a feeling that Putin’s personal qualities are now the most important, and no expert assessments, analysts and work of his team are no longer important.

The second option is that the beneficiaries of the authorities decided that the model of a fundamental society is exactly the model that people want, but are simply embarrassed to say this out loud. It seems to them that this society led them to the laws that have already been adopted, and now allegedly pushes to adopt a law on sacrilege.

I personally are inclined to the first option that the leader is simply inadequate. That all this is not a reasonable behavior leading towards the Orthodox Taliban, but we just received a tyrant in power.

Many political scientists and experts are sure that in our country, authoritarianism has already formed, which, logically developing, will lead us to repressions comparable to the Stalinist ones. What do you think, maybe Russia still has a chance to turn off this path and move towards liberalization?

As for authoritarianism, this style is simple. There is a style, yes. What is the difference between authoritarianism and totalitarianism? Totalitarianism is already a different system, another constitution. Authoritarianism is just a style of power, the way it behaves. Not a change in laws, but a violation of laws, when power ignores. In this sense, yes, the power is absolutely authoritarian.

But the situation today is changing quite quickly, so I do not think that we entered the time of non -alternativeness. At least I do not see this. Now a lot will be decided in the fall, during the crisis. Yes, there are dangerous movements of power, but all this is not fatal.

That is, we have what to hope for, in everything that happens is there something positive, something good?

You see, I myself partly sacrifice this total search for good. For the past two years, I tried not to notice all this, these common signals [to twist the nuts], but tried to see something good, tried to do what I liked. I tried to deal with the Perm project , the problem of decentralization ... Now all this good is crossed out. All this is global [what is happening now in the country] begins to crawl very much in all local. Therefore, it seems to me that it is necessary to sink power, there should be some cold sobering shower for her. It is worth hoping for this, and I think this will happen. After that, it makes sense to peer, peer and look for something good. But this can be done when there is no all this background - depressive.