Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 5 – Vladimir Putin’s
decision to shift unpopular decisions to the regional leaders in order to avoid
being held accountable at the cost of his ratings and reflecting his view that
the appointed governors represent no threat to Moscow is proving to be a
fundamental mistake, Ivan Preobrazhensky says.
It points not to the revival of
federalism as in the US or Germany but rather to a new “parade of sovereignties”
like the one that threatened the territorial integrity of the RSFSR 30 years
ago and contributed to the demise of the Soviet Union, the Russian commentator
says on Deutsche Welle (dw.com/ru/комментарий-карантинный-феодализм-в-россии/a-52992260).
“Russian propagandists often talk
about the disintegration of a single Europe and the death of Shengen. But events
in Russia itself are lading to concerns that visas soon will be required for
Russians for trips from Kaluga Oblast to Leningrad Oblast. Or even from one
region to another” within a single federal subject.
A minimum of 75 subjects have already
introduced a quarantine under one name or another. Some are preventing the sale
of alcohol and others have even introduced curfews. Chechnya and Moscow are
only near the top of this list, Preobrazhensky continues.
One can perhaps understand this in
the North Caucasus, “where block posts between many republics have remained
since the 1990s. But even Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, doesn’t want tourists
‘from the big land.’”
The central authorities in Moscow have
been giving verbal approval to what is happening even as they “ignore its
possible consequences.” And as a result, “the regions continue to erect new
borders” and non-Russian republics like Sakha and Chechnya are now talking
about defending their own from the coronavirus by defending against outsiders.
This situation has arisen “because Vladimir
Putin clearly doesn’t want to take responsibility for introducing a quarantine
on the country as a whole. This would be an unpopular decision and his ratings
apparently made more to him” than anything else. He’s counting on a boost once
the situation stabilizes.
The Kremlin has thus handed over
responsibility to the governors, having convinced itself that whatever they do
they are no threat because they are Kremlin appointees and can be removed at
will. But the collapse of transportation
means that they are further away than Moscow thinks and may continue to act
more independently.
Even those in nearby oblasts can’t
be easily “called on the carpet” because Moscow would have to send a plane to
bring them in, and the governors if they want can simply not answer the phone,
Preobrazhensky continues. Moreover, they
have the right to give orders to siloviki in their regions and they are using
that.
Some in Moscow are tempted to
compare this with what is happening in genuinely federal countries like the US
and Germany. In their view, “Chechnya is simply introducing tougher quarantine
rules much as the federal state of Bavaria or [the US] state of Wisconsin have
done.”
“But this similarity is deceptive,” he points out. Russia
hasn’t had federalism except in its name since Putin ended the direct elections
of governors after Beslan and made the federal subjects financially and
politically dependent on Moscow. Federalism could arise if Moscow reversed
course and devolved power and money to the regions.
But
that is not what is happening. Instead, “regional authorities are simply ‘seizing’
additional authorities even though their orders are often ‘illegal.’” That
doesn’t appear to both Moscow because Moscow itself often is issuing illegal
orders as well. ”But this isn’t federalism. It is feudalism of the clearest
kind.”
“The
vassals are seizing power, and in the future, they will inevitably begin to
trade with the center,” just as Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov has been accustomed
to doing. If this situation intensifies
and “Putin continues to distance himself from responsibility, this could end with
the paralysis of the central power and ‘a parade of sovereignties’” like 30
years ago.
Everyone,
of course, remembers how that ended.
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