#1 - JRL 6408
Moscow Times
August 27, 2002
The Man Without a Face
By Boris Kagarlitsky
After every new catastrophe in Russia, the sociologists announce to great fanfare that President Vladimir Putin's approval rating remains unchanged. Whatever the president does, and whatever the consequences of his actions, his rating holds at a steady 70 percent.
From the point of view of sociological theory, this is pure nonsense. But in fact the result depends entirely on your approach.
As sociologists themselves admit, Putin's approval rating varies between 13 percent and 72 percent, depending on how the pollsters formulate their questions.
What's more, it's not uncommon for a single respondent to lambast the president's foreign and domestic policies, while giving him high marks for job performance on the whole.
This can't be passed off as simple inconsistency or diversity of opinion. We are faced with something much more serious.
The fact is that for some time now Russians have based their assessment of Putin on his job title rather than his performance or his person.
Boris Yeltsin was loathed by many Russians, but he was, at least, a colorful and significant figure. You could love him or hate him.
Putin, on the other hand, is unprepossessing and faceless. He is little more than an appendage to his office. And the office can't remain unoccupied, after all.
As a result, when the pollsters ask if people approve of the president they are in effect asking if people believe that Russia needs a president at all.
Seventy percent of Russians regularly assert that they understand the established rules of the game and that they're ready to play by them. The "silent majority" might be unhappy with their lives, but they're not about to take to the streets in protest.
A trade union friend of mine put it best: "Putin is president, and we have to support him no matter what we may think of him."
The very concept of a political alternative has disappeared during the past three years.
The opposition at least made a show of battling with Yeltsin. Today the opposition doesn't hide the fact that the battle is only for second place. It makes no claim to an independent political role.
Putin stands above the fray. It's pointless to compare Putin to other politicians in the absence of political competition. Whatever you might think of Putin as president, he's the only show in town. Even if he does absolutely nothing.
In the Yeltsin era, the public still believed that it elected the president. But in 1999-2000 this belief was revealed to be an illusion.
The president arises in the bowels of the bureaucracy, the product of its secret laws. Elections have become nothing more than a gala before the inauguration.
Talk about a changing of the guard now resembles discussions of climate change. The political elite are like bad weather; you can curse them all you like but you won't change a thing. If you don't like the climate or the government, move to another country. If you want to live in Russia, learn to love her as she is -- terrible climate, meaningless president and all.
The presidency loses all political significance in this situation. It has become nothing more than the top spot in the bureaucracy.
The president is no longer the leader of the country. He is the managers' manager, head of the bureaucratic horde. And the bureaucracy will always be with us. It cannot be changed, just like the roads and the fools whom 150 years ago Nikolai Gogol called the twin misfortunes of Russia.
Putin seems to understand his role and acts accordingly. He behaves like a conscientious department head, dutifully carrying out other people's orders. No one has given any instructions for three years now, but that's not important. Putin's department has grown to the point where it's commensurate with Russia itself.
When you get right down to it, anyone could be the president of Russia. The less significant and colorful the better. If the rules of the game are not changed, the next president of Russia could just as well be a trained ape.
Unless Russians decide one fine day to try to change the rules of the game.
Boris Kagarlitsky is a Moscow-based sociologist.
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