Like Russian Liberals, Russian Regionalists Failing to Focus on ‘Bridge’ between Current Realities and Dreams about the Future, Shtepa Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 10 – Most members of the Russian opposition can specify in some detail what kind of a future they would like their country to have, but almost none of them are focusing on the steps that will be necessary to create “the bridge” from where it is now to that future, Vadim Shtepa says.

            That is prominently the case with Russian liberals in the emigration who talk about “a beautiful Russia of the future” but generally fail to think about let alone get involved with the hard work of going beyond wishful thinking, the editor of the Tallinn-based regionalist portal Region.Expert says (region.expert/bridge/).

            But it is also very often the case with regionalists as well, who spend their time drawing lines on the future map they would like to see rather than focusing on the need to put in the work to demand the kind of changes in the electoral system that might make the achievement of their goals possible, Shtepa continues.

            And while both groups look back to the speed and ease with which the USSR fell apart in 1991, neither recognizes that that happened because there had earlier taken place real elections and the leaders of the union republics had the kind of legitimacy that no regional leader in the Russian Federation now has.

            In the case of regionalist and nationalist groups, Shtepa says, that means that their programs begin only after independence has somehow been achieved, a focus that makes the likelihood that such an outcome will occur far less than might otherwise be the case, a disturbing parallel to those Russian liberals who talk only about a beautiful future but not how to get there.