Visiting professor blasts Russia's power elite

The situation in Russia is grim—and it's going to be grim for a while, according to Professor Boris Kapustin.

A visiting professor of Ethics, Politics, and Economics, Kapustin came here last year from Moscow's School of Social and Economic Sciences, having completed his most recent work, Modernity as a Subject of Political Theory. He sat down with the Herald to evaluate the state of his homeland in light of Boris Yeltsin's resignation as Russian president and the continuing war in Chechnya.

ANDREW HEID/YH Russian native Boris Kapustin says that Western nations support Russia's elite.

"Russia can be rotten indefinitely," Kapustin said. "I cannot see any limit to this rottening. The people can be manipulated indefinitely if the elite is consolidated, if the elite is politically resourceful, if it can use those institutions which were meant originally to give voice to the people."

And this is just what Russia's de facto ruling class has done, according to Kapustin. Vladimir Putin's accession to the presidency demonstrates the power and stability of the "oligarchs" who controlled Yeltsin for the last several years. "Mr. Putin has been supported by diverse factions of the Russian elite despite internal rivalries," he said. "This shows that the elite is capable of acting in concert; it has consolidated and matured." Kapustin is convinced that what he calls the "politically corrupt, economically inefficient" elite of Russia will dominate the upcoming elections on Sun., Mar. 26.

Russia's problems—an average wage of about $70 a month, 15 million people below the poverty line, a rapidly deteriorating standard of living—come from this corruption, not from flaws within the system, Kapustin said. He believes the structure of procedural democracy as it exists in Russia is feasible, but it is being exploited for the personal gain of the elites. "This political regime cannot change its nature," he said. "It is corrupt. It has nothing to do with the public good or the national interest."

The current war in Chechnya has enabled the regime to hide its self-interested nature and to appear to be acting in the public interest, Kapustin said. "The real tragedy of the war in Chechnya—besides, of course, the bloodshed and suffering and the terrible casualties on both sides—is that this regime, in my opinion, will gain political momentum and be able to survive longer."

Russia's apparent success in Chechnya helps pacify the impoverished population for two reasons, Kapustin said. First, it soothes the wounded national pride of a former superpower that has been constantly humiliated, both by the West and by internal separatist movements, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Second, it seems to avenge Chechen terrorism. "I have nothing against the Chechens as an ethnic group, but because of the way they have been made to live due to the horrible condition of the economy, too many Chechens have been involved in criminal activity," Kapustin said. "When the government says it is struggling against Chechen terrorism, this really resonates in Russia, and there is a grain of truth to it."

The war is so politically necessary for the elites, Kapustin said, that "Even if it fails in Chechnya, another war can be launched in some other place to keep the regime going."

Kapustin believes Russia is at a crisis point, and it can remain in crisis indefinitely—the population, he says, is unlikely to challenge the oppressive status quo. And he doubts the rest of the world is either able or willing to help—in part, because influential Western economic forces benefit from a weak and corrupt Russia. However, in the long term, he sees reason for hope.

"Despite all my disillusionment with the political culture of Russia, I do believe some anti-regime forces will coalesce sooner or later," Kapustin said. "Through horrible events like the second war in Chechnya, the rise of separatist movements elsewhere, and the inability of the government to recreate national health care or national education, the Russian population is undergoing an important practical political education right now."

Eventually, this painful lesson will allow liberal parties to gain power, according to Kapustin. One encouraging sign, he said, is the Apple party. Nearly the smallest group in Parliament, it won fewer than 30 seats in the last December election. "But these people are represented. This political current has a voice. It's not very loud, it's sometimes trembling, but it's there."

Russia's miserable situation has no bottom limit; it may continue to worsen for years, according to Kapustin. "But—perhaps this is naïve of me to say—I will be surprised if this regime survives a decade more."

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