#8
The Russia Journal
November 10-16, 2002
Security reform must be an urgent priority
By Peter Lavelle

If anything has been learned from the recent tragic hostage crisis in Moscow, it is the fact that Putin’s reform project for Russia is in need of significant invigoration. Often tragedy opens our eyes to what surrounds us. President Vladimir Putin’s certainly had a disturbing experience; he learned just how inefficient and corrupt the many institutions under his command are. They are his people – the same people who can destroy both him, and a sovereign prosperous Russia.

Over the course of three years, the little-known and underestimated middle-level functionary from the former KGB has proven himself to be a Russian president of substance. With his decision to forcefully end the hostage crisis, Putin has been able to recapture political initiative and popular admiration. Putin’s next moves should be obvious.

Before, during and after this crisis, the sycophants surrounding Putin failed their boss. The high prices for raw-material export commodities filling the state’s coffers with tax revenues have allowed Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and his hapless cronies to be lulled into a ‘big sleep’ reminiscent of the Brezhnev years.

Kasyanov and his government should be cited as "un-named co-conspirators" for inadvertently allowing the Moscow theater crisis to occur. Over the past two years, this government has done only what it needs to do to get by without being sacked. With the successful conclusion of the hostage crisis, this should be a wakeup call for change. This government’s free ride on Putin’s back has to come to an end.

The government’s foot-dragging on the reform project may partly account for the rise of the Putin cult. The popular song, "I want someone like Putin," illustrates the point. It is not that his own people engineered his personality cult. Putin’s popularity is inversely correlated to the distrust of authorities in general. The fact that many Russians are blindly following the ‘leader’ demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the political culture.

Russians aren’t much different from their Western counterparts in this regard. Individuals invigorate the political process in the West, while institutions remain distant and impersonal. The bureaucracy in Russia is simply less friendly. Putin may be keeping the Russian Federation together merely through his personality much more than most armchair pundits or overpaid Western journalists could ever imagine. The security forces and the military are certainly not keeping the country in one sovereign piece.

Distrust of the institutions representing state authority is hardly surprising. Despite all the positive news about Russia’s macroeconomic development since the August 1998 meltdown, corruption among the police and security forces has only gotten worse. Extortion from the ‘little people’ and small businesses are the only things left unprotected by "roofs" – Russian slang for racketeering and pay-offs to the people charged with enforcing law and order.

These problems are not major concerns for Kasyanov – his people, just like many others at the top, are not negatively impacted. Why should they care? The very people supposedly charged with serving their constituents protect their interests first.

The security forces and the military have simply been allowed to take care of themselves. The results are obvious in Chechnya and now in Moscow.

Putin’s reform project started out as an attempt to bring an end to the worst business practices of the Yeltsin years and to re-establish Russia as a respectable member of the world community. To a degree this has happened – Russia has gone from ‘worse to bad’ under Putin.

Who would have thought a former KGB functionary would become a defender of the market economy? But who would have thought this same person would find it so difficult to reform the security and military forces?

The fact that the hostage crisis happened at all is a telling sign that significant reform of the security forces and military should take on renewed urgency.

It is an odd irony that because of Vladimir Putin, foreign investment is slowly returning to Russia. Russia is even called a safe haven by some due to international economic uncertainty, while just about anybody walking down the Stary Arbat can be fleeced by a police officer for the most minor offense.

The terrorists who took the Moscow theater made their way to, and stayed in, the capital city not because of an elaborate terrorist network, but because they could pay for their safe passage with bribes.

The greed and unprofessionalism of some turned into death certificates for many others. The lack of accountability endangers the state and its population.

The security forces and the military function in society much the same way state investment in infrastructure keeps a nation working: They regulate and protect.

Neglecting both puts Putin’s achievements and future plans in harm’s way. Going from ‘worse to bad’ has benefited some Russians and Russia’s standing in the world. But the tragic hostage crisis tells us what progress has been made and what still needs to be done to protect citizens on the streets and in the theaters of Moscow.

If Kasyanov indeed works for the president, then he should be made to reform the security and military forces as an urgent priority. He should also be made to demonstrate progress instead of pretending everything is fine just because the president is popular.

If he doesn’t, the only result will be the relative unpopularity of the political elite and the end of Russia’s fledgling experiment in democracy.

(Peter Lavelle is a Moscow-based analyst and author of ‘Peter Lavelle’s Russia Report,’ available at www.russiareport.ru)

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