Gleb PAVLOVSKY: Old Shadow System of Power in Russia Is Also Being Dismantled Under the Carpet

The Polit.ru Internet newspaper has carried an interview with Gleb Pavlovsky, director of the Moscow Center for Political Technologies, who was one of the chief image-makers of Unity during the parliamentary elections and made a sizable contribution to Vladimir Putin’s victory. Mr. Pavlovsky assesses the situation concerning Vladimir Gusinsky’s arrest within the broad context of the political and economic situation in Russia. He does it, of course, from a certain angle, which, nevertheless, does not diminish the originality of some of his assessments.

We publish some fragments of that interview.

“The system that worked under President Yeltsin implied a personal sanction of the head of state for any actions against the oligarchs. Has the model of its functioning changed?”

Gleb PAVLOVSKY: “You said yourself that a certain system existed. It had formal and informal sides in terms of procedure, with the informal ones being in fact the main thing on which everything rested. In particular, one of the generally accepted informal sides of the old system was the untouchable character of a number of groups...

“Then a funny thing happens. Irrespective of any mandate, dismantling begins more or less spontaneously in different points. Individual subjects simply cease to follow their former rules of behavior. Naturally, they do not synchronize their activities, for Mr. Putin has really massive, but not clearly organized, support in the provinces. This means dismantling begins in the same shadowy way in which the former system was set up. This process turns into a competition: which of these groups was first to crack the safe.”

“Is there a conflict between the old system and Mr. Putin?”

“In general, the conflict lies in the existence of a new political force which has taken power and has in fact no other political instruments with which to wield this power than the old system of dependence. There is nothing else. This resembles the situation of a vicious circle being broken by the means we now see.”

“Who do you think is breaking this circle?”

“If we exposed the procedure of what is going on, it would rather look unexpected to practically all its participants. But the implication, in the shape of hidden, non-public, actions of the agents of this situation, would look politically much more inadequate than the publicly involved sides imagine. Some individual griping is heard: on the one hand, in the form of charges of anti-Semitism, and, on the other hand, suddenly the subject of debts to Gazprom comes up. All these are fragments of the real situation which was never put across to society as a political situation.”

“Is the idea that Mr. Putin was manufactured more myth than reality?”

“This is from the sphere of phantom wars. The truth is Mr. Putin has turned into the central point of the whole political scene. None of the things works unless it goes through him. It looks as if Mr. Putin either holds or leads everybody.”

“What kind of impact will this crisis have on the course of federation reforms?”

“As a side effect, it will, of course, complicate on-going procedures. All procedural processes have been called to question. Frankly, now is not the time to open new fronts.”

“In what way will relations with the West be complicated?”

“The most mythologized environments are the most vulnerable. Today, our relationship with the West is the area of extreme vagueness, in particular, because of elections in the United States. They still look on us there in the pre-election context. Of course, the relations will be extremely confused and chaotic.”