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As I know you used to work in North Ossetia. Does the population sense a lack of strategies?
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I do not think that all of them are political scientists and think about state strategy. Or they feel this lack subconsciously?
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For me working in Ossetia was a discovery. The first thing I was really surprised by was the good attitude to the Russians and the second is uncertainty of future and fear of future.
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Psychological fear of future which does not exist in Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan, but does exist a republic of Russia.
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Of course it is linked with possible conflicts. I think in this case a clear economic plan could play a preventive role. I hope such a kind of medicine will be Khloponin's plan.
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I would like to wish him good luck. It is one of the first experiments of strategic planning but at a sub regional level.
But I am afraid that without federal will the plan will be changed while being approved.
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What trends in your opinion will define the development of the post-Soviet countries?
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Now we are about to have a long row of elections, starting with Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Belarus, then Russia and Ukraine.
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The data of the surveys in Russia and neighboring countries show that the results of these elections might be different compared to the previous ones.
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A very deep process of review of historical past and the moment is happening in the social conscious.
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The "Obschestvennoye mneniye" (Social opinion) foundation has done research called "Historical Experience".
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It is about people's attitude to the past, the present and their expectations for the future.
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This kind of research was done at the beginning of the 2000-s and now it is repeated.
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There is a dynamic process of review going on. As a result it will lead to review of political preferences. Specifics of the process are that the picture of the history used to be the Soviet times - the 90-s - the present.
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The 90-s were valued vary negatively. Now the historical circle is wider.
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There is a strange tendency to value the last Soviet period positively, i.e. the time related to Perestroika and getting independence for many countries also the first years of independent state.
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Another trend is a growth of sympathy for Europe. Probably it could be explained by bigger experience, nowadays more people go to Europe. The European Union is an example of well organized life and integration processes.
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Is politics still personalized for the Post-Soviet people? I mean that politics means a person, like Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan, Aliyev in Azerbaijan or Putin in Russia.
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Or politics now is something more complicated, related with some ideology or development programme?
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What prevails - objectivity or subjectivity?
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I think the subjective factor will be only more important in our countries. Maybe it is a historical tradition but role of personality is very important.
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In this sense Kyrgyzstan is an experiment to build parliamentary republic, to reform constitutional structure.
But the surveys in Kyrgyzstan show that people want a strong leader.
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Like Putin?
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Yes, yes.
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On one hand, parliamentary democracy's tendency could be considered as an Eurotrend, on the other hand, the population wants something different - a strong hand, order, stability. How it could correlate?
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It is a very deep thing. People want European standards of life, but do not apprehend European procedures.
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So let's have an authoritarian leader and live like in Europe?
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I think all our countries - successful ones (Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan), and unsuccessful ones are at the edge to decide about a reform of state's structure without copying European or Chinese patterns, but finding their own decision.
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Our elite has a very creative task now - to decide the question of state building.
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At the same time I would not say that there is no need for the democratic process, but they cannot be just about European procedures of voting.
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So I would give a forecast that our countries will need some new instrument of direct democracy.
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