We publish the full text of a secret speech, delivered by Vladimir Putin’s top aide, the deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration, Vladislav Surkov, speaking to members of the “Delovaya Rossiya” (Business Russia) economic forum, last week. The full text of Surkov’s speech was made public on the Radio Liberty website on July 11.
Vladislav Surkov: First, I would like to briefly identify our wishes. We wish to see Russia as a democratic state with developed economic institutes. Someone might want this out of sheer sympathy, others adhere to more pragmatic reasons, as recent world history has proven that a complex society model is more efficient, than a vertically integrated one. We have an idea of how long these processes should take. A system as complex, as our country, can not afford fast and dramatic changes. Democracy is not our only objective. We care about the Russian Federation’s sovereignty.
Open economy and global financial networks tend to render the very notion of sovereignty obsolete. Nowadays, some schools of political thought are dominated by illusions. The success of open economy is impressive. But this does not mean that the global financial system is rock solid, or that it won’t change with time. I think, that some people, blinded by today’s results, have got it wrong. The world has to be integrated, but the value of national cultures does not decrease, it only grows instead. One has to safeguard sovereignty. There is also the immediate task of fighting terrorism, that threatens our country’s integrity, and, therefore, threatens our sovereignty. The Caucasus is [problem] number one. Unfortunately, the situation isn’t getting any better there. It is even getting worse. It looks like an underground fire. And we’ve got nothing to boast about there.
Today we witness definite movement by Finland, Estonia and the EU on the issue of Finno-Ugrian nations. It has suddenly been discovered that we [Russia] opress them somehow. They are discriminated against in our country. And regions, where these Finno-Ugrians constitute a majority of the population, do hold a strategic amount of our oil reserves. I am not a fan of conspiracy theories. But this is obviously a premeditated system of operations [against Russia]. Last week there was a resolution in PACE about how “we” oppress the Finno-Ugric nations (the Hants, the Mansi, the Chuvash, the Komi peoples etc). These are yesterday’s schemes, and they’re evident. And I didn’t even start to mention all those “orange revolutions”, about humanitarian institutes’ activities. It’s common knowledge, that Freedom House is headed by Woolsey, who used to be the head of the CIA. It takes an idiot to believe in the humanitarian mission of this “establishment” [Surkov uses the word “kontora”, which means “office” in Russian and used to be a codename of the KGB in Soviet times]. We also should not forget, that specific circles in those countries are also pursuing similar tasks. We have to take this into account in our work.
For instance, it is difficult for me to understand what the big difference is between the Kuchma regime (now alledgedly perceived as criminal), and the Yushchenko regime. As hard as I tried, I failed to see any difference. Apart from the fact, that some people grabbed the seats of others. Obviously, some financial streams and some assets will soon be changing hands, too. If this is a positive development, then I want to ask, what would have happened if Putin someday said: “Let’s deprivatize a couple of strategic[ally important] enterprizes.” One can imagine, what a storm of protests such a statement would provoke, both nationwide and internationally. And in the Ukraine such steps are taken quite openly. And they call it a democratic achievement. And our “rightist” leader Boris Nemtsov acts as an advisor there. This will probably ensure the stability of democratic institutions. Not to mention what we used to believe what we learned from Western [political] theory pundits — that peaceful transition of power, in the timeframe defined by Law, constitutes the core principle of democracy. And how did the governing power change in Ukraine? All the thinkable and unthinkable procedures were violated. It can hardly strengthen the Ukrainian people’s respect for democracy.
But this was all about [our] external problems. Regardless of whatever anyone has to say on the issue, current [Russian] rulers do uphold the principle that [private] property is inalienable. I wouldn’t want to discuss the Yukos case here. But this, indeed, had nothing to do with redistribution [of property], as some tend to claim. But this is a totally different story, and it had totally different reasons. Not related to politics. Of course, it’s easy to present these reasons as political ones nowadays. Thank God, I’m doing exactly those very things myself, for which Misha [Khodorkovsky] was allegedly jailed. This is outright nonsense. I can swear to you, that if Khodorkovsky were at large, the outcome of the elections would have been the same. This corporation posed absolutely no political threat. I told him [to Khodorkovsky], that power, as well as love, can’t be bought. Thinking that a bunch of corrupt [Duma] factions can elect you prime minister is naive. He had those bizarre ideas.
Therefore I would like to stress, that this [Yukos] process, that had wide repercussions, that was difficult and unpleasant for all of us — does not have such a plain political explanation. There were a number of factors involved. Of course, as Sergei Alexandrovich [Abramov, chairman of the Business Russia’s supervisory board] correctly stated, speaking before me, there was this task [for the Kremlin] to send a negative message to business tycoons. They’ve got it all wrong if they think that they can do what they please. From the very start we kept saying, that we won’t tolerate [this approach]. We won’t allow a small bunch of companies to exercise power in this country. This is not democracy. Apart from that small bunch of people, there are also 140 million “poor relatives”, living in this country. And their opinion should be also taken into account. In our business people like to say “I come from the business background myself”. There is a memorable quote by one of the U.S. presidents, who said: “What’s good for GM, is good for America”. I would like to remind, that both the Roosevelt brothers had a somewhat different view of [big] business. I won’t even quote them, in order not to offend anyone present here. But even the trade secretary in JFK’s government used to say: “Sometimes, it’s this way, but sometimes it’s the other way round.” Sometimes, what’s good for General Motors is not good at all.
That is why our position is open here, too. We consider it an incorrect situation when several big companies are ordering about state personnel. I have worked in big companies, myself. I know how it is done and I know what I am talking about. Evidently, it does not mean that we must ignore the opinions of business. But a normal, civilized form must be worked out. We understand it clearly that the best intellectual resources and staff etc. are concentrated in business. It is our national property. It is the base of the political class that must take the first place in the country. Not direct the country but take first place. At the same time, we adhere to the idea of the property stability. If there are exaggerations in the regions, it means that both law enforcement structures and various people extort something, try to make something, this is a disease in the whole of society. Of course, things such as the Yukos case can create a negative atmosphere. But both the president and other top officials are trying to prevent it. At this stage many things depend on the active position of business, on its active self-defense, because there is no need to look toward the state only.
CONTINUED……………………………………………………
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
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