Developing Far East but Not Siberia 'Stupid,' Karaganov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 30 – For the last 20 years, Moscow has actively promoted the development of the Russian Far East; but in doing so, it has made three fundamental mistakes which must be corrected if Russia is to benefit even from what already has been achieved, Sergey Karaganov says.

            First, in developing the Russian Far East, Moscow has ignored developing Siberia, the land between European Russia and the Far East beyond Lake Baikal, the Higher School of Economics professor and frequent commentator on Russian foreign and domestic politics (primamedia.ru/news/1136152/).

            Such an approach is “stupid,” he continues, because if in effect creates two separate and disconnected entities and means that anything that either or both of them achieve will be compromised because there is not a developed Siberia between them.

            Second, Karaganov says, Moscow has utterly failed to involve local people and elites in the process. The center gives orders and local people more or less obey, but they are not invested in the outcomes. And because they are not, he argues, they are less likely to work to ensure these projects succeed.

            And third, he says, Moscow has failed to come up with an ideological narrative that can win people over. Everything is reduced to technologies. As a result, their incentives to work for the future are reduced to a cash nexus which is always at risk of breaking or forming in ways that compromise the future of the country.

            Karaganov expresses the hope that these mistakes will be overcome and that once there is an appreciation of the need to develop Siberia, there will be a greater willingness to involve local people and elites in its construction and come up with an ideological vision that will inspire Siberians and others to move forward.

            His argument is important not only because he is a well-connected Moscow commentator but also because he made it at the Pacific Russia Club, a gathering that has played a key role in elaborating Russian policy about the Pacific Rim but has not focused on the land in between, Siberia.

            Undoubtedly, many of his listeners were not enthused. After all, if Karaganov’s program were adopted, it would not only cost them some of the resources now flowing to them but also unsettle the Putin power vertical in the regions. And that may be the most important reason for attending to his words.

            What Karaganov is doing is proposing a radical reordering of the Russian political system starting not as most do with Moscow but with a critical region and insisting that Moscow follow rather than lead future development there.