Re: NИstor Miguel Gorojovsky on Oligarchs

["Chris Doss" <nomorebounces@xxxxxxx>]

Just a couple of quick comments on Nestor's letter, which I think in general is spot-on. (Incidentally, I am reading Medvedev's book on Putin, and I can think of no better introduction to the history of Russia over the past few years -- though I doubt it has been translated into English.)

Nestor:
>
> Nester sent me these comments in response to my earlier question to the
> list.
>
> The Robber Barons were not acting in the world of decadent
> imperialism, as the Russian Oligarchs are.  The Barons had a free
> hand and a socially accepted moral right, so to say, to accumulate
> wealth under the conditions of expanding capitalism.  They feared no
> socialist revolution, nor did they have one in the country's past.

I think it is important to recognize that one reason for the massive capital flight from Russia in the Yeltsin era was that the oligarchs were worried that their capital might be renationalized if the KPRF ever came into power, so they would ship it abroad as quickly as possible. There has been some speculation that Abramovich's purchase of Chelsea might have been based on similar fears -- translating Russian money (appropriated from the Russian people) into untouchable assets abroad to avoid their seizure by the government. I do not know how much that is true or how much it is just rumor.

>
> I believe Chris D. has a good grasp of what is actually happenning
> there.  Putin looks like a new Peter the Great, in fact.  He is
> trying -sill once again- to "catch up" with the West, in order to put
> Russia on the topmost ranks of the world scenario.

That is definitely Putin's agenda.

He counts on
> nukes to defend the country against foreign aggression, on the
> militarized structure of the security services to slap the
> bourgeoisie (and more than just "slap", if need be), and the massive
> support of the population in the Russian Federation to turn their
> country into a modern, capitalist self-centered society with some
> social-democratic tinge.

Yes. (If any American politician were to say the kind of things Putin does about the state's responsibility to the population, s/he would probably be called a Communist.)


>
> He also has the "oligarchs", who will be forced by the sword to work
> _for_ Russia in the same way the French or English bourgeoisies were
> forced (also by the sword) to work for their respective countries by
> their local national revolutions before those countries would be able
> to enjoy democratic rights.  Those who don't want to bend, will be
> smashed, which I will toast to.

Exactly. Almost immediately after the Khodorkovsky arrest, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (the so-called "Union of the Oligarchs," which represents the biggest of the big Russian businesses) held an emergency meeting. It was amazing. They were like frightened naughty schoolboys -- they announced that they had "spontaneously," out of the goodness of their hearts, decided to voluntarily pay more taxes and contribute to charity.

Those who bend, will strike deals in
> the Japanese or Korean model, thus strengthening themselves, the
> Russian state and Russian self-centered capitalism.  And most
> probably he can count on a new wave of "new businessmen" welling out
> from the young members of the Russian middle class which roots in the
> old bureaucracy.

Yes. I think Kagarlitsky's interpretation of the Affair Khodorkovsky as a Revolt of the Millionaires against the Billionaires is correct to this extent -- the nomenclatura want a piece of the oligarchs' pie, and the middle class wants to break up the oligarchs' hold on the economy so as to provide a space for small and medium business. Actually the only people against breaking up the oligarchy are the oligarchs and a few psychotic liberal ideologues who write for Novaya Gazeta and get quoted all the time in the West to fill the role of the "Good Russian." (Anybody who says there is no opposition press in Russia has clearly never read a copy of Novaya "Putin Eats Babies" Gazeta.)


> This is what Brzezinsky feared so much:  Russia is "too big", said
> this Polish reactionary who works for the American Democrats.  And
> right he was.

Brzez. is a best-seller in Russia: Know Your Enemy.