Russian Business ‘Natural Opponent’ of Putin Should be the Ally of His Political Opponents, Inozemtsev Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Apr. 2 – Russians who established their own businesses cannot be pleased by the Putin regime’s current drive to redivide property and thus are “a natural opponent” of that regime and at least potentially an important ally for those political groups opposed to it even though neither has sought to work closely with the other, Vladislav Inozemtsev says.
    From the 1990s on, the two groups have followed a similar trajectory. Having had some independent influence then, they were marginalized by the Putin regime and now take political positions that in most cases are of interest only to themselves, the Russian economist and commentator says (moscowtimes.ru/2025/04/02/tsena-predostorozhnosti-ili-rossiiskii-biznes-kak-estestvennii-protivnik-putinskogo-rezhima-a159817).
    The mistakes which both groups committed and that allowed the Kremlin to push them away from any real power, Inozemtsev continues, “made both in the eyes of society if not enemies then an inescapable evil which also became an important factor in the support of the authorities if enthusiastic and open and in the background and latent.”
    “What is surprising,” he says, “is that both these groups never tried to create the conditions for a constructive dialogue even when this was possible.” Instead, despite their common disdain for Putin, they have gone their separate ways and thus each has been weaker than would have been the case if they had cooperated.
    And this has continued since the start of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine, Inozemtsev adds, despite the fact that “by the level of their education, honor, principleness, rationality of their views on the world, orientation toward progress and reaction has made these groups unbelievably close.”
    “More than that, they are situated together by values and norms on the same side of that abyss, on the other side of which is now concentrated the Russian bureaucracy which embodies in itself all the worst which exists in the country. But despite that, these natural allies over the course of many years have positioned themselves as ardent enemies.”
    Any “beautiful Russia of the future,” he continues, “can be constructed only by the joint efforts of business and civil society.” They share many values and “today, the leading group can and even will be forced to become the Russian entrepreneurial class,” however odd that may seem to people in the political opposition.
    “The  most important Russian entrepreneurs are not allies of Vladimir Putin,” and they have been given clear signs that showing loyalty to him is no guarantee that their holdings will not be touched and themselves kept from being punished one way or another, according to Inozemtsev.
    Moreover, he concludes, “no one has a greater motive to seek the deconstruction of the regime and greater competence for the administration of a new Russia that competitive Russian business.” Members of that group have “already long recognized the advantages of democratic administration over a dictatorship.”
    Indeed, “today the Kremlin is sending this group a signal that its time is running out. If even these signal aren’t sufficient to prompt the most successful and independent pa of Russian society to come to its senses, then nothing and no one will be able to save Russia,” Inozemtsev argues.