The Russia Conundrum

But the West, which continues to inflict unnecessary damage on itself, is also to blame. The Kremlin has benefited enormously from democracy’s crisis globally, and from the realisation that Western liberal democracies have turned out to be more vulnerable to political corruption than many thought they were. When Vladimir Putin is criticised for political corruption and intolerance, he now simply points to the West. You may think there are imperfections here at home, he says to the Russian people, but just look how much worse things are in the countries of so-called Western democracy. It is an old tactic: I remember very well how, when Soviet leaders were attacked for their human rights abuses, they would retort that Black people in America or Catholics in Northern Ireland were being treated much worse. Such arguments have become an existential crutch for the Putin regime.

At times, it seems that both sides recognise the need for fundamental change, but neither seems capable of securing it. What should matter to all of us are the shared origins of our common European-Atlantic civilisation. Russians should not be strangers in the Western world. We are Europeans; we have helped to build and grow this civilisation, and I believe we will be an important part of it once again.

The 2020s have the potential to be a turning point for Russia. The invasion of Ukraine has thrown the future of the Putin regime into uncertainty and given ammunition to Russia’s democratic opposition. Putin’s decision to jail Alexei Navalny in 2021 made the popular lawyer and anti-corruption activist into a political prisoner, in the same way that I was in the 2000s. Navalny’s ‘crime’ was the same as mine: to have pointed out the corruption and self-enrichment of the president. He took the same decision that I did: to continue the fight, even if it means going to prison. It gave both of us status in the struggle for freedom and democracy. Modern technology now makes that struggle very public. Navalny’s exposé of Putin’s theft of public funds to build his extravagant palace on the Black Sea was viewed over 100 million times on the internet. Social media helped coordinate demonstrations against Navalny’s imprisonment all over Russia, not just in Moscow and St Petersburg; and hundreds of thousands of those who took part said they were motivated to protest against the Kremlin for the first time in their lives. They are mainly young people and their protest is not just about Navalny, but about the injustices that run through Putin’s Russia.

Discontent with the Putin regime has reached new heights. We are at a historic moment of opportunity that offers the chance of a better future. If it were to be spurned, the issues that divide East and West will become entrenched beyond redress. The security not only of Russia but also of the Atlantic alliance will suffer and global peace be put at risk. Men and women of goodwill on both sides must come together now to ensure this is not allowed to happen. What follows is my attempt to reveal how this can be done.

PART ONE

A GREAT EXPERIMENT

Early years: an image from school

CHAPTER 1

HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS

I grew up on Cosmonaut Street in north-east Moscow, where gangs of youths and petty criminals ruled the roost. There were street fights and at times it could be scary. I decided early on that I didn’t want to live my life in fear; I didn’t want the unending stress of living with outside forces that can bully you. For the hooligans, the answer was simple: I trained in martial arts, beefed up my muscles and refused to give in to their threats. But there were other forces in Soviet society that were also aimed at making people cower, and they were harder to confront.

As a child in the 1960s and 1970s, like most Soviet people I believed in the Party. Communism was our universe; it was here to stay and we never even thought there could be other ways of doing things. That’s pretty much how children are: parents, friends, teachers – what they say is a fact; most of the time you accept it without questioning. Sure, we had a little snigger when our leader Leonid Brezhnev used to come on TV mumbling and stumbling or awarding himself yet another medal. That was funny. But maybe it was like that everywhere? I didn’t see a connection between our system and empty shelves in the shops. I didn’t even know that shops could be full.

When I look back, I wonder if I was too naive, too blinkered to see clearly. I understood that lots of things were wrong, and I certainly knew there were plenty of contemptible people running the country, but I didn’t draw a general conclusion from those individual facts. Perhaps I didn’t do a lot of thinking.