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Sergei Mikheev, the head of the Political Situation Center
The most important thing is that a lot depends on us ourselves.
This is not a political topic, but still.
Yes, there are some grievances with the government,
but within society a lot depends on people themselves and the way they handle certain situations,
are they responsible or irresponsible about the development of their own country.
There are a lot of claims that our quality of live isn’t what it should be,
the dialogue with the authorities is not active enough, etcetera.
But unfortunately these problems are rooted in the way of life of the people themselves.
I agree with Putin, who wrote in his article that there will be no civil society
until society itself is ready to change and assume responsibility.
I think that the level of people’s requirements has grown, ambitions are egregious,
but there is no readiness to work hard to achieve these ambitions.
People see what a good life is, they understood that they want to live well,
but I don’t think they are ready to make themselves worthy of it.
In other words, I’m not sure they’re ready to work hard to live well.
And I’m also not sure that they’re ready to study for the same purpose either.
There is such a desire among the people:
“Let there be order and ‘dry’ law, but let there be a wine-store in my home”.
A lot of young people want to live like MTV stars but don’t want to work or study for that.
it would be ideal for them if they could do nothing but sit in cafe's twittering something
– and get the money required for a gorgeous life for that.
And the notorious problem of corruption?
I have three children and I’ve gone through the same ordeal three times:
parents gather up a committee to collect money for a ‘gift’ to a school teacher.
I asked them if the teacher told them to do so, or the principle, or were they threatened or hinted at?
But no! They say we should do it because it’s how they do things in schools.
And the same goes on in other spheres of life.
People themselves reproduce the same vicious pattern that they generally stand up
against as far as bureaucracy is concerned.
And they blame the authorities, not themselves.
They think that the government should make everything right on its own.
But is this possible without cooperation between the authorities and society?
I don’t think so.
Sergei, what you say is true,
but it might as well serve as a condemnation of the inefficiency of the government.
The authorities will have an opportunity to blame all our problems on their ancient and rooted nature
within an inefficient civil society,
and that would partially lift the weight of responsibility from the government.
I, on the other hand, think that if we have an opportunity to pressure the government on specific issues,
we should do it, and not make excuses about a ‘green’ civil society.
But I’m not trying to excuse the inefficiency or crimes of some bureaucrats.
I just want to say that the efforts should be mutual.
It won’t work if only the authorities make demands or vice-versa.
Without achieving a compromise (and I think we’re near such a compromise now), without common ground,
it will be hard to achieve anything.
As for political topics, I would like to comment on the current activity of the opposition.
I am absolutely sure that those opposition figures who'll keep demanding the impossible,
who'll become more radical and insist on the illegitimate character of the elections,
who'll keep saying that we should lean over backwards to change everything,
will soon lose all remaining support.
They will degrade politically.
And those opposition figures who’ll acknowledge a certain progress
will be able to evolve and get additional points.
And namely, who is who in the opposition?
I wouldn’t want to say the names.
But I can tell you this much:
I’m sure that all those who participated in the meeting with Medvedev came there to assure their own future.
As for Zyuganov, I think that what he does today is ineffective and only harms his image.
I don’t think anything good will come of it, it will only do him harm.
As for Putin’s victory and reasons for it, I’m sure
that both the governmental and independent oppositions have done all they could
to help Putin win in the first round, whether they are aware of it or not.
The governmental opposition played at give-away,
while the independent opposition has spoken only of Putin day and night,
round the clock via all possible information channels.
They didn’t tell us about their vision of the future, they didn’t present their program,
they were obsessed with Putin.
And by doing that they PRed him, whether they understand it or not.
I’ve participated in enough election campaigns to understand that it is the most standard PR move:
make your rival speak only of you and it will raise your ratings even if he says bad things only.
By speaking only of Putin the independent opposition made him ‘person #1’,
helped him rise above the whole process.
And of course, their irrational position (if Putin disappears all will be well at once)
made some people who were not actually going to participate in the polls go and support Putin.