| The atmosphere is quite fitting. The parliament
has to bring up the matter to save face. The model of Russian capitalism
built under Boris Yeltsin and fortified under Vladimir Putin is
much too flawed to provide stable economic growth or a breakthrough
into a post-industrial society.
Mikhail Kasyanov's government personifies all the typical features
of capitalism.
It took literally years of scandals in the media before the regime
finally sacked odious Yevgeny Adamov and Nikolai Aksyonenko, the
ministers who transformed their departments into private businesses.
Firstly, they stepped down with impunity, retaining clout and
power in their empires. Secondly, their behavior in the government
may have been much too extravagant but actually typical of the
Kasyanov's Cabinet.
The vote of no confidence was initiated by Yabloko and communist
factions. It will be interesting and illustrative to gauge the
reaction of other political parties represented in the Duma.
The foursome power party that built its strategy around criticism
of the government is in a tight fix. Leaders of the party in power
castigate the Cabinet whose ministers are members of the party
itself.
Voting confidence in the government will put an end to the election
strategy. Voting no confidence without the Kremlin's approval
is unthinkable.
The Union of Right-Wing Forces is facing a problem of its own.
Competing with Yabloko for the traditional democratic electorate,
the Union of Right Forces cannot back Yabloko's initiative by
definition.
Union leaders say that the Cabinet is not that bad because "it
has been implementing numerous progressive ideas of the Union
of Right-Wing Forces." On the other hand, the government
is horrible indeed, but can it truly be blamed for this? The government
is merely a cog in the executive power structure system, the "cleaning
lady" to quote Boris Nemtsov. The true evil is in the presidential
administration. The general director should be criticized, not
the cleaning lady, but
Yabloko is too meek to contemplate such an idea.
All these arguments are not entirely convincing. A vote of no
confidence in the government is the only political instrument
parliament can use to challenge the executive branch of the government, including the president.
Yabloko has never needed much prompting to castigate the economic
policy of the regime, its Chechn policy and policy in the media.
It is all the more strange to hear Yabloko castigated for meekness
by the party which made it to the Duma under the slogan "Putin
for President, Kiriyenko for the Duma", the party that announced
that "the Russian army is being revived in Chechnya and everybody
who thinks otherwise is a traitor", the party whose death
squad of Kokh and Jordan cleaned up NTV.
Nemtsov is undoubtedly correct about one thing. Where responsibility
to society is concerned, Kasyanov's government with its cosy niche
in our constitutional system and the title of "technical"
is truly a cleaning lady. But where is the general director then?
Where is the individual whom we can ask about the level of capitalisation?
The president in our system is a divine figure responsible for
foreign policy, security, and such spheres. His references to
economic matters are made once a year; mostly restricted to demands
for more ambitions and a doubling of GDP. Nobody has bothered to
explain whether this doubling will be achieved in seven years
(see page 12 of the presidential address) or in a decade (page
19).
As a result, where the economy is concerned we have an irresponsible
government and president. I do not mean Kasyanov and Putin personally,
I mean the subjects of power specified by the Constitution and
the traditions of its application.
Russia is a presidential republic for foreign policy and security
issues, and nobody's republic for economic issues. Consequently
it is hardly surprising that the "jackals are tearing Russia's
economy apart", to quote Presidential Advisor Andrei Illarionov.
They cannot help it, the republic is nobody's. The vote of no
confidence should apply to Cabinet members and the existing system
of irresponsibility.
Will the political establishment find a way out? And let us
dismiss all speculations on the conspiracy of some oligarchs out
to dismiss Putin and proclaim a parliamentary republic or Putin's
intention to play the role of prime minister in a parliamentary
republic after 2008.
We do not have a system of political parties in Russia, and
the parliamentary republic idea will not work. We should probably
try the American system where the president is head of the Cabinet
and is responsible (for the national economy too), while the parliament
wields much broader controlling functions.
See also:
No-Confidence
Vote
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