Achtergrond bij auteur van het volgende artikel:
Vladimir Yakovlevich Gelman is a Russian political scientist and writer. Candidate of political science, professor at the European University at Saint Petersburg.
There will be no elite split: Vladimir Gelman on why the disgruntled Russian political elites are silentAlmost from the very beginning of the ‘special military operation’, observers mentioned the possibility of a split among the Russian elites into supporters of a more aggressive military engagement and proponents of a more peaceful resolution of the conflict. According to these observers, such an elite split could at the very least have helped put an end to the hostilities and could have eventually brought down the Russian regime. However, nothing of the sort has happened. Moreover, despite the recent deterioration of the situation on the frontline and the withdrawal of Russian troops from eastern and southern Ukraine, there is no reason to expect a split among the Russian elites in the foreseeable future.
Collective leadership is not typical of post-Soviet authoritarian regimes, including the Russian one. Although some analysts have coined catchphrases such as ‘Politburo 2.0′, the nature of Putin’s interactions with his entourage bears little resemblance to the leadership of the Central Committee under Khrushchev or Gorbachev. There are no mechanisms for collective decision-making at the level of the country’s leadership today, and meetings with top officials look more like a demonstration of their approval of decisions made unilaterally by the head of state (recall, for example, the meeting of the Russian Security Council on the eve of the launch of the ‘special military operation’ in February 2022).
A split implies that different segments of the elites are cooperating with one another. In the Russian case, however, no regular cooperation, let alone cooperation based on common political views, is possible. The representatives of the ruling elite are co-opted personally by the head of state on an individual basis. Of course, they may have a common interest in the struggle for some influential positions, for the reallocation of financial resources, or on some other issues. However, such alliances and coalitions are organised on an ad hoc basis and represent not organised factions but rather short-lived cliques whose interests sometimes coincide and sometimes contradict each other.
Just as ordinary Russians who disapprove of the ‘special military operation’ are not very inclined to engage in collective protests, against the backdrop of reprisals from the state, so the elites are not inclined to risk their position and take collective action against Putin. From their point of view, individual risks associated with the threat of punishment for disloyalty clearly outweigh all the collective costs incurred by the elites due to Russian military aggression. Moreover, the elites have grounds to doubt that collective action can bring about the change they desire.
The chances of organised collective action by the Russian elites against the ‘special military operation’ are therefore extremely slim and doomed to remain so in any war scenario.
Het is probleem van alle autocratische regimes, concentratie van macht zorgt uiteindelijk voor een systeem dat draait om absolute loyaliteit en het bestrijden van alles wat een bedreiging kan zijn. Hoe harder dat spel wordt gespeeld, hoe meer mensen met meer gematigde visies afvallen. De cirkel van mensen die invloed en macht hebben wordt uiteindelijk ook steeds kleiner.
In zo'n situatie kan je geen top-down correctie verwachten van een groep die bijvoorbeeld ontevreden is, zoals ook vaak wordt bericht is de groep rondom Poetin juist veel agressiever qua aanpak.
Het probleem is dat dit een uitdaging betreft voor westen, zulke politieke systemen zijn ons vreemd en we projecteren toch altijd ons eigen gedachtegoed op land zoals Rusland. Je ziet het aan alle uitleg maar ook aan de propaganda uit allerlei hoeken die de Rusland verdedigen vanuit het concept van een natiestaat met legitieme historische en geopolitieke belangen.
We kunnen vanuit het westen eigenlijk maar moeilijk bevatten dat zulke concepten in Rusland eigenlijk niet meer bestaan. We hebben feitelijk te maken met een regime dat veel meer gemeen heeft met een maffia organisatie, dan met een natiestaat.
"When I am weaker than you I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles"- Frank Herbert