Vladimir Pozner: results of the protest year

TV presenter and journalist Vladimir Pozner summed up the results of the protest year on the anniversary of the protest, and also told PublicPost about the successes of the opposition, the fears of the authorities, whether there will be democracy in Russia and about the failed leader Alexei Navalny.

— Exactly a year has passed since the first major rally. What has the opposition managed to do during this time?

Not much happened. Although, thanks to the protest movement, certain decisions were made. They can be interpreted in any way, even if they are concessions. It doesn't matter, the main thing is that they were accepted. In particular, the decision on the new registration of political parties and the direct election of governors. At the same time, repressive laws were adopted, for example, the law on rallies. Everything is very ambiguous. At least the protest movement has become a real factor in life that is known to people and takes place. And perhaps, from a psychological point of view, this is the main achievement.

— You talked about repressive measures. Does this mean that the authorities are afraid of people who go out into the streets?

Afraid is too strong a word, but there are certain fears.

— That is, in the eyes of the authorities, the protest movement still represents some kind of significant force?

At least when all these laws were adopted, I think it did. Today - I don't know. It seems to me that now the authorities have a feeling that, in essence, the protest movement has come to naught. This happens for various reasons. Most likely, because the opposition leaders don't really have a program, they can't offer anything. In the absence of clear proposals, people stop going out. Then it was connected with specific things, in particular with elections. The elections have passed, all this is over, and, it seems, there is no longer a concrete reason for the external manifestation of protest in the form of demonstrations and marches.

— Do you think the protest is fading?

There is some feeling. That is, dissatisfaction remains, and I would even say that it is growing. But this is not the kind of discontent associated with poverty, food shortages, that is, with what is usually associated with the protest movement. But here everything is completely different: this is dissatisfaction with a certain state of affairs in the country. This also applies to the state of the judicial system, to the feeling of insecurity and corruption. In my opinion, Russian protest is precisely directed against these phenomena. And they are still relevant. I just think that protest sentiments have persisted and probably even increased.

— What, in your opinion, is the main problem of the Russian opposition? Similar processes took place in Arab countries, but there the rallies ended in revolutions, and our opposition is still taking part in events agreed upon with the authorities.

I would say thank God. I wouldn't like revolutions that always end in blood. They don’t give anything good: there was a revolution in Egypt, and what is happening there now? I'm not even talking about other countries, such as Libya and Syria. All this does not cause any envy in me. Demonstrations occur in many countries for one reason or another: in France, Italy, and Spain. This is a way of communicating your dissatisfaction to the authorities, and, as a rule, the authorities react to this. Revolution is no longer about bringing something to the attention of the authorities, but about the desire to physically overthrow this authority and replace it with someone. And in this case, it seems to me, one of the problems is the absence of such a leader. He is not visible. The fundamental difference between the so-called leaders and those who go out into the streets is that the leaders just want power, and the people who take to the streets want to change fortunes, not power.

— Alexei Navalny was at one time positioned as a leader...

He's trying, yes. But I'm skeptical about it. It's intuitive. I am generally skeptical about people who strive for power. For me, they are driven either by a thirst for power as such (I don’t like that), or by some kind of messianism. That is, the feeling that they know how we should live. I told Navalny: “I don’t want to live the way you see fit.” To this he answered me: “No, no, you will like it.”

—Who could become the real leader of the opposition in this case?

I don’t know such a person, I don’t have a candidate. I have no doubt that he will appear someday. It's inevitable, but I don't know when.

—Where is the protest movement heading? What awaits him?

Lately I've been asked about this a lot. I always say that when I was young, I had this crystal ball, I looked into it and knew exactly what would happen. And then I lost it and never found it. Now I don’t know what will happen. This is such a thankless question. For example, politicians very often make incorrect predictions, but for some reason they are forgiven for this. But if you look closely, the number of absolutely idiotic predictions that have not come true and are far from the truth is enormous.

— What has this year of protest become for you personally?

I went to two rallies, trying to dress in such a way that no one would recognize me: I understood that there would immediately be television cameras and everything else. There are people who bathe in all this, but not me. I was just interested to see what kind of people they were. Of course, I became convinced that they were all completely different, with different ideas, and mostly quite well off. This is how it should be in a country that is trying to strive for democracy in one way or another.

— Does Russia strive for democracy?

I believe this is the inevitable condition of any country of Judeo-Christian heritage. Democracy emerges from this legacy. In Russia, everything is much more difficult because of Orthodoxy, which has generally slowed down the development of the country compared to Western Europe. The same applies to other Orthodox countries - Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, etc.

Returning to the question about this year, I can say that I regard it positively. It is a pity, of course, that the opposition leaders cannot come to an agreement with each other. But this is understandable: how can such different people agree? When one is an obvious communist from the Left Front, and the other is Navalny, who is absolutely right-wing. This is impossible. All this talk about a united movement, of course, sounds great, but has little to do with reality.