Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-26-Speech-4-181"
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"en.20070426.27.4-181"2
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".
Madam President, for a long time, the countries of the old European Communities laboured under the illusion that the authoritarian one-party state and the violent oppression of any form of organised opposition in Russia were a product of Communism. I remember that the German radical student leader Rudi Dutschke, who has been dead for a long time now and was nick-named the
warned the Left in Western Europe against this position. In his view, what happened in Russia at the time was completely unrelated to Socialism or Communism, but very much related to what he referred to as an ‘Asian’ tradition. This is a tradition in which a small group, using the toughest measures, manages to remain in charge in a large and sparsely populated country.
Every time someone in Russia is put in power who wishes to resolve this unsatisfactory situation, there has, to date, been every chance that his successor would have resorted to the old abuses. Khrushchev in the 50s and 60s, and Gorbachev in the 80s and 90s failed to change Russia from the top down.
The current President, Putin, like the tsars and Stalin previously, seamlessly fits into this old Russian mould. He managed to gain power when his chaotic predecessor, Yeltsin, was no longer able to run the country, and, having gained popularity among the Russians by destroying Chechnya, is now in the process of taking away their democracy.
Unfortunate is the country that owns oil or natural gas, because the possession of them, and of the wealth that exports bring in, puts the leaders in a stronger position of power and makes domestic change virtually impossible. Moreover, the criticism levelled by most of the outside world that wants to buy energy will quickly subside. Russia now finds itself in the same position as Saudi Arabia or Iran. Even in the two largest cities, which, so far, offered the most scope for criticism and diversity, demonstrations by opponents are made impossible. The European countries and their residents should not accept this lying down, but should act in solidarity with those who want to turn Russia into a decent democracy."@en1
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