Memories of Russia
I visited Russia,
and the three Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, in September of
2017.
When I
take one of these trips overseas, I research the countries that I will visit,
take daily recorded and written notes, and later formalize a writeup and a Power
Point presentation of the trip, both personal experiences, and research. This allows me not only to make Power Point
presentations to various groups, it also allows me to go back and refresh my
memories.
On the
trip to The Baltics and Russia, I attended lectures by academicians and notable
news people concerning the society and politics in each country. I also met and socialized with normal, everyday
people, and got a citizen’s view of life in the country.
Without going
into a lot of detail, a common theme in the three Baltic countries in 2017 was
fear that Russia would act to re-absorb them back into something like the old
Soviet Union. All three of these
countries are members of NATO, but this was at a time that President Trump was
shaking NATO up (particularly Germany), to contribute their promised 2% of GDP to
NATO defense. Trump, in fact was
questioning the efficacy of the U.S. continuing in NATO. This was not pleasant news to hear in Vilnius,
Riga or Tallinn.
People in
Russia were pleasant and helpful. St
Petersburg and Moscow in Western Russia were very European in nature, and
except for the difference in alphabets, I could have as well been in Berlin or
Paris or Rome. I was particularly impressed
with St Petersburg, Peter the Great’s “Venice of the North”.
A family of
three generations in St Petersburg hosted us for “an impromptu snack” on a
Sunday afternoon. This was actually a
feast, with beet borscht, piroshky, a samovar, and rivers of vodka. Talk was of their work, family, sports (primarily
European football), and then talk drifted to them wishing to visit the U.S. or
Western Europe, but being prevented by the sanctions that the U.S. had imposed against
Russia at that time because of Russia’s invasion and absorption of Crimea from
Ukraine in 2014. Even in 2017, Western
sanctions were impacting average Russians.
Later in the week in St Petersburg I heard a lecture
by Sergei Akapov, PhD, a full professor at the
Department of political science, St.-Petersburg Campus of Russian Research
University “Higher School of Economics” (HSE SPb). https://www.hse.ru/en/org/persons/73196268
Dr. Akapov’s topic was Russia’s domestic and
international orientation in the modern world.
Some of his main points were as follows:
1.)
Russia consists of 85 states, 145 million people and
is diverse and multi-national.
2.)
Russia currently is a “semi presidential
federation”, which means a president is popularly elected and exists alongside
a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the
legislature. It differs from a parliamentary republic in that it has a
popularly elected head of state, who is more than a purely ceremonial
figurehead. Modern France is another example of a semi presidential system.
Vladimir Putin is the directly elected President or Chief of State of Russia
since 2012. He is a member of the United Russia party, which he and Medvedev
started. United Russia got 63.6% of the
vote in the last election. Dmitry
Medvedev is Prime Minister or head of government, elected with a Duma vote of
299 to 144.
3.)
Putin has over an 80% approval rating. He is regarded as a Russian hero who is
re-establishing Russia as a world power. (sic)
4.)
Putin is regarded by the Russian public as a
mediating influence in the Ukraine, Syria and other Russian foreign adventures,
and not as an aggressor. Most consider
Eastern Ukraine as part of Mother Russia. (sic)
5.)
There is dissatisfaction with the oligarchs from
Yeltsin’s time, some of whom are perpetuated by Putin.
6.)
Russia is a victim of globalization and cannot
compete with western countries like the U.S., U.K., Germany, et al.
7.)
Recent sanctions have exacerbated the economic issues
for Russia.
8.)
Russia is very statist and has many rules and
regulations.
9.)
There is a brain drain because particularly
technical education is of a high caliber and local salaries are lower than
abroad. Many graduates emigrate to other
European countries where salaries are higher and living is easier.
10.)
I specifically asked Dr. Akapov about Russian
meddling in the U.S. election process, off the record, and not only the party
line. He smiled and basically reiterated
the Trump administration’s position here, that “hackers may have accessed some
unsecure servers, but Russian operatives did not affect the outcome of the U.S.
election”.
11.)
I also asked him what was the Russian opinion of our
president Trump? He again smiled and
said “we have no greater problems with him than other American presidents”.
Later in
our trip, I got turned around on a Moscow street from the Metropole Hotel where
I was staying. I asked directions from a
chic, well-appointed young Russian woman.
She pulled out her smart phone and showed me the way back to the hotel,
in English.
Ray
Gruszecki
March 17,
2022