Alexey Kudrin warned Russia against confrontation with the West. He stated this at the presentation of the report “Values of Perestroika in the Context of Modern Russia” and called for “finding a common language with the leading world powers”

Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin (Photo: Nikolai Asmolovsky for RBC)

According to Kudrin, confrontation with the West is a dead-end path that will only lead Russia to losses. “It’s sad that today we are again in confrontation with the West. This is definitely a dead-end path,” Kudrin said, Interfax reports. “A weak Russia, unfortunately, will not be able to unite new allies around itself, will not be able to compete in the technological sphere, and will lose its military capabilities,” the ex-minister believes.

According to him, if Russia follows the path of confrontation, then “allies will begin to turn away from it, who will not want to deal with a country under sanctions, a country with a weak economy, with undeveloped market institutions.”

According to Kudrin, no one in the world seeks to weaken and destroy Russia. “All American companies want to work peacefully in Russia and make money. Key foreign centers of power need stability and predictability,” he said, citing the example of China, which manages to build relations with the West and receive economic advantages from this.

The report of the Committee of Civil Initiatives (CIC) of Kudrin and the Gorbachev Foundation, which was made public on Thursday, speaks of the need to carry out a new “perestroika” in Russia in order to return to the country the “lost democratic alternative”: free elections, federalism, the rule of law, social democracy and self-organization of society.

Experts from the Gobachev Foundation and KGI believe that “one of the most important achievements of perestroika was the institutionalization of elections as a democratic value, an instrument for the formation of power and its change through the free expression of the will of citizens.” They noted that “perestroika was not introduced from outside,” it “matured in Soviet society.” But the political situation prevented the completion of perestroika, or, as the authors called it, the “unfinished revolution.” In their opinion, the conflict in Chechnya, the difficult economic situation in the 1990s and the rampant crime created in society a demand for a return to an authoritarian state that would restore order in the country with a “harsh hand.”

In March, KGI prepared a report “Between Crimea and the Crisis,” in which it identified two scenarios for the development of the internal political situation in Russia. Experts believe that both depend on the prospects for resolving the Ukrainian crisis.

If events develop according to the first option, experts believe, there will be a “final cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, which will weaken the relevance of external threat factors and increase the likelihood of a gradual lifting of economic sanctions against Russia.” In this case, the “factor of protective patriotism” will play a secondary role, and its influence on the government’s ratings will also weaken. Society, according to experts, will gradually move towards a “development agenda”.

The second scenario for the development of events assumes “the continuation of the armed conflict in Ukraine.” The authors of the report believe that in this case, the factor of “protective patriotism” and a media campaign will help maintain trust in the authorities at a high level. “The persistence of an external threat, combined with a lower level of economic sentiment in an economic crisis, will support the transfer of aggression to an external enemy, an attitude towards current consumption and minimizing risks,” the authors write.

Kudrin called Russia's confrontation with the West a dead end