11/11/2008

News / State of the Nation: Medvedev talks tough

In his first state of the nation address, President Dmitry Medvedev brandished his liberal streak by suggesting sweeping changes on both the domestic and foreign policy fronts. And he also took sharp aim at the United States, promising to "neutralize" America's missile shield in Eastern Europe. He continued the tough rhetoric when he blamed global financial woes on irresponsible economic policies that allowed what he called a local problem to get out of control.

And yet, in what started out as a tough speech, comparable, perhaps, with former President Vladimir Putin's address at Munich in 2007, Medvedev went on to outline some of the most liberal domestic reform measures proposed in Russia for a long time. While he lashed out at the United States, he decried big government at home and underlined the need to foster democratic procedure. For the first time in a decade, the president, in effect, proposed giving more powers to regional parliaments and small parties, even as he suggested extending the presidential term to six years.

Medvedev spoke Wednesday in the white-columned Grand Kremlin Palace before the Federal Assembly, which includes both chambers of Russia's parliament. Seated in the front rows directly in front of him were parliamentary figures, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the leader of the United Russia party. Though it appeared at first that the United States would bear the full brunt of abuse, Medvedev criticized the role of the government and called for the need to bolster democracy - from the top, if need be.

"We have a state apparatus that is simultaneously the largest job creator, the largest publisher, the best producer, its own court, its own party, and even, in the end, its own people. This is an ineffective system," Medvedev said. "The democratic institutions that were created from the top over the years must become rooted in all social strata. In order to do this, we need to continually prove the viability of democratic procedure. Secondly, we need to entrust more ordinary citizens with a larger number of political and social functions.

"First of all, I propose taking measures to increase the level of popular representation in the government. Over 90 percent of voters elected parties that entered the Duma in 2007. But 5 million voters... did not get representation on the federal level. This is not fair. And it should be corrected."

The president then went on to list ten proposed reforms to parliamentary election procedure.

The first measure would guarantee that parties that garner 5-7 percent of the vote get at least 1 seat in parliament. In a second, more radical measure, Medvedev proposed giving the power to nominate regional governors to majority parties in regional parliaments, instead of the president. In other words, the power to select a regional leader would go to "public, open political structures that represent the population of the country." Medvedev also proposed gradually decreasing the number of signatures that parties had to obtain in order to take part in the elections, getting rid of fees to participate in elections, and even reducing the minimum number of members an organization must have in order to be registered as a party. Finally, he proposed extending the term for legislatures from four to five years, and the presidential term from four to six years. A spokesperson for the president later clarified that the changes would not go into effect during Medvedev's term.

Medvedev also took serious aim at poor media coverage of "underdog" parties - something that Russia has been repeatedly criticized for in the West. "Parliamentary parties should have clearly formulated guarantees regarding coverage of their activities in the mass media. Freedom of speech must be provided for technologically. Experience has shown that trying to convince officials to leave the media alone is practically useless. Instead of convincing, we should widen the sphere of the Internet and digital television. No official will be able to block discussions in the Internet or censor thousands of television channels."

These were some of the most pointed statements yet regarding the state of Russian democracy coming from the President. Putin's administration had drawn heated criticism from the West over its decision replace regional governor elections with appointments. Medvedev's proposed measure, however, would give more power to a majority party, which, in this case, is United Russia, currently headed by Putin. Throughout the address, Medvedev underlined the necessity of rooting out corruption and "legal nihilism," and protecting small business from red tape.

Against this liberal backdrop, Medvedev's attacks on the United States sounded all the more menacing. But much like Putin's landmark address in Munich, when he mentioned the "asymmetrical response" that Russia would adopt against NATO expansion, Medvedev's comments did not contain any inherently new threats.

"Considering what we have been faced with in the last years (a missile shield, Russia being surrounded by military bases, NATO expansion, and other ‘presents' for Russia), we are getting the impression that they are simply trying to test out patience. Of course, we will not allow ourselves to be drawn into an arms race. But we cannot fail to take these actions into account in our defense policy."

"We earlier planned to take three missile regiments within the missile division stationed in Kozelsk off combat duty and discontinue the division itself by 2010. I have decided to refrain from these plans," Med­vedev said. "The Iskander missile system will be deployed in Kaliningrad region to neutralize, when necessary, the missile shield. Radioelectronic equipment located in the western region will jam objects of the U.S. missile defense system."

While perhaps more specific than Moscow has revealed in the past, these defense measures should not be interpreted as a direct confrontation, analysts say.

"The logic is that we tried to negotiate, the negotiations didn't work, and now we are taking counter measures," Ivan Safranchuk, a former Moscow head of the Institute of Defense Information and a foreign policy analyst at Moscow State Insti­tute for International Affairs, told

The Moscow News. "Medvedev, unlike Putin, is more willing to try to implement changes in world policy. He believes there is a lot to change."

The measures themselves, meanwhile, have been discussed for about two years. The only thing that may appear surprising from the American perspective, Safranchuk says, is that Moscow is actually going to carry out the plans.

Medvedev's firebrand speech was initially scheduled for October, but was postponed a number of times. Officially, presidential spokespeople said that Medvedev had been making changes to the address. But the delay could have been connected to financial turmoil and the uncertainty coming from the U.S. presidential elections.

By Anna Arutunyan

http://mnweekly.rian.ru/news/20081106/55355380.html


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