Elections Without Primakov

Russian former Premier Yevgeny Primakov officially announced he will not run for President in the coming elections. Of course, an announcement like this was in order following the outsider move made by the Otechestvo- Vsia Rossiya (OVR, Our Fatherland is All Russia). Even before the elections when OVR’s fiasco was predictable, Primakov’s long-awaited announcement that he would run was not taken seriously. I was personally impressed by the former government head’s explanation of his withdrawal: Russia has not created a truly democratic society.

True, it has not. Vladimir Putin’s march to the presidency is practically unimpeded, unanimously supported, and promoted by the media. What more evidence does one need to agree with Primakov’s statement? But what about him? Did he not also intend to use that same road to get to the Kremlin? Did he not also claim the succession to Yeltsin’s throne? He did so not because he was a strong public politician, but on the strength of his office as Prime Minister. Did he not rely on the old nomenklatura after being dismissed? Did he not try to convert OVR into a party of power that would gain strength primarily by weakening the Kremlin? Then why should he be surprised to watch all those presidents and governors that had promised him support in the campaign run ahead of each other to confess love for Vladimir Putin? Was he not aware that all those characters would support only the winner?

What hurt Primakov’s feelings was not the absence of democracy, but the absence of support from his party of power. His fellow party members had promised him an easy victory. And he had always been so very cautious! Yet there he was, talked into believing that the presidency was in his pocket, turning instead into yet another has-been on pension, no longer able to claim even a leading post in the Duma. At the end of his televised appearance Primakov stressed that, while refusing to vie in the presidential campaign, he was prepared to continue to serve Russian society in a different official capacity — a case study in bureaucratic logic!

Primakov was doomed in his struggle for power precisely because he remained a bureaucrat, regardless of the post he held but had the nerve to challenge a politician, not Vladimir Putin but Boris Yeltsin. Yet Putin’s first months as Acting President show that Yeltsin is the name ending the list of Russian politicians.