HOW DO YOU SLAY A DRAGON?

When all things are considered, the only possible scenario will be to move forwards, not backwards. Naturally, it calls for courage to admit one’s mistakes and call a spade a spade, including acknowledging crimes as crimes. Those who have committed these crimes must bear full responsibility for them and accept the consequences. But the way out of this situation must be found in keeping with the new reality as things are now. This is no simple task. In each specific case a balance must be sought between restoring the old justice and the creation of a new injustice; between acknowledging what is essential politically and turning away from what is politically impossible.

Returning to the most pressing problem, that of Crimea and the other occupied territories, then here we have two key moments in my opinion. First of all, we cannot simply ignore the issue and say that we’ve got rid of Putin but Crimea will be ours nonetheless. If we don’t solve this problem, the war will never end. Secondly, for the reasons cited above it’s also impossible simply to return Crimea to Ukrainian jurisdiction. Mainly because in practice it will be impossible to avoid violence on the peninsula after it’s restored to Ukraine. It’ll be necessary to find some complicated solutions involving a gradual restitution with a third country as a guarantor.

Rejecting Putin’s legacy does not mean, unfortunately, that we can simply ignore it. The war represents the new reality, and the way out of it must be organised and properly thought through. In doing so, certain important principles must be observed, namely:

Old problems can never be solved simply by creating new ones.

Separate what is politically desirable  from what is politically possible .

Understand clearly where the interests of Putin’s regime lie and where Russia’s national interests begin, and don’t solve the problem of de-Putinisation by damaging Russia’s national interests.

Approach each point separately, noting the unique difficulties of each one; don’t rush to find a universal, standard solution.

History has demonstrated that ways of solving many of life’s problems simply don’t exist yet; they have to be worked out afresh.

Time and political will are needed in order to solve many problems.

Chapter 7. How to Defeat an Internal Counter-Revolution:

Purge the Old Guard or Try to Correct Them?

Russia has gone through a difficult return to its Soviet past. It’s already passed the point of no return. There’s no turning back. The chain of events was thus:

Yeltsin pushed forward Putin as his successor

Putin gradually took over total power

There were creeping counter-reforms

The return (in effect) of state control over the economy, but indirectly – it’s less “the state” than “the mafia” (in other words, the situation’s worse than in Soviet times).

   Taken together, this means that over a quarter of a century after Gorbachev’s perestroika, Russia has not only returned to the starting point of his reforms, but in many ways has gone back to a time many decades before this.

This Soviet restoration poses the practical question about the strength of these reactionaries, who are trying to extinguish any kind of reform or revolution and reinstate themselves in power. Putin and his closest circle are representatives of the second and third levels of the Soviet nomenklatura (the highest level have already pretty well disappeared and, in any case, wouldn’t be in a position to reinstate themselves to their previous positions). These people from the second and third levels slipped into the background, yet were waiting there, ready to carry out an ambush. When the opportunity arose, they came to the fore and tried to turn back the clock to restore the old ways of ruling, which they remembered well from their youth. Naturally, they did this by adapting to contemporary conditions, which meant first and foremost that they considered it essential to make themselves as rich as possible.