The G8 summit is over and it could not have gone better for the Kremlin. World leaders saved their painful questions regarding the status of democracy in Russia for the unofficial dinner. The topic of continuing brutality in the Russian army wasn’t even mentioned. And the so-called alternative G8 summit launched by the Russian “freedom fighters” Andrei Illarionov and chess master Gary Kasparov went largely unnoticed.
One cause of the summit’s success was the pre-summit police work which prevented anti-globalists and other protesters from getting close the heart of the city. One of the protestor’s requests for an anti-globalization march was approved, but with one condition – the protestors had to march in circles around the soccer stadium on the outskirts of the city.
A diplomatic success for America came when the Russian President, a traditional supporter of the Palestinians, agreed with the other world leaders on the Middle East situation. "Under no circumstances can one abduct people and carry out rocket strikes on the territory of one state from the territory of another," Putin said. It also appears that Putin and Bush reached an agreement that Iran should not be allowed to independently enrich uranium.
“We are satisfied that all our ideas and suggestions were met with understanding” – said Putin, who spent 50 minutes answering questions from the press (more time than any other world leader). Tony Blair, in his answers, addressed the question of human rights and democracy in Russia. Blair said that at the Sunday dinner “Putin answered in detail about the evolution of democracy in Russia, about the future elections, about the new rules of governor’s elections; this was a very detailed analysis, which we were listening to with a great interest.”
Putin told the G8 leaders one more time that he will not change the Russian constitution and stay for the third term. Putin also explained that Russia is a nation in transition and cannot simply copy the government system of more established democracies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel disagreed with Putin and suggested that Russia should develop a stronger independent court system. That’s when George Bush defended his “friend Vladimir” and asked Putin to repeat the one-on-one conversation they had before the summit started. Jacques Chirac also stood up for Putin, asking the G8 leaders to not forget what a challenge it is to rule a country as big as Russia.
The alternative G8 summit sponsored by the Russian opposition didn’t make the news. Russia Blog has written before about Andrei Illarionov, the former Putin advisor who brought people to tears at the annual Heritage Foundation meetings with his promise to condemn Putin’s administration right before the summit. At that same meeting, Wall Street Journal journalist John Fund promised that the letter condemning the Kremlin would be published in the Journal.
At that time, I presented a different view from Mr. Illarionov and predicted that anti-Russian government sentiments would not receive wide support from the real policy makers and politicians. Now, we are happy to see the Russian President on the covers of Forbes and The Economist this month, while the “alternative G8” has received no attention whatsoever.
It seems that rising living standards in Russia, the expansion of international trade, and the growth of a market economy has a more positive impact on Russia's relations with the West than the Cold War-era speculations of Illarionov and his supporters.
UPDATE: Konstantin's Russian Blog has some comments on the extremists who sullied Gary Kasparov's alternative G-8 event with their presence. Unfortunately, in the name of creating a united opposition to promote democratic values against the Putin Administration, Kasparov appears to make common cause with National Bolsheviks (whose symbol is the communist hammer & sickle set against a red flag that resembles the Nazi banner) and other extremists who could care less about "democracy".
Comments
Yuri,
While I agree with you about the irrelvance of the Other Russia Conference, it was amazing how much media coverage it got in the English language press. A Google News search of "Other Russia" reveals just how much attention it got outside of Russia. But I guess the English language media will jump at anything that is anti-Putin and sacrafice any decent commentary on the realities of Russian politics.
Posted by: Sean | July 17, 2006 6:14 PM
Trackback failed. I would like to show a link to a related post on my blog.
http://newglobal-america.blogspot.com/2006/07/russia-and-west-at-st-petersburg.html
I stop by here on some occasion.
Posted by: Shah Alexander | July 19, 2006 10:25 PM
"The G8 summit is over and it could not have gone better for Russia."
I can't quite believe I see this in print. Are you guys joking?
Russia was denied admission to the WTO after Kudrin publicly stated it was a done deal, an incredible humiliation.
Bush met with opposition groups, Blair's wife did the same, and as Sean notes there was a huge amount of coverage of the Kremlin's attacks on the Other Russia group.
Russia got a huge black eye and can point to no substantive achievements at all.
I'm surprised and disappointed by your comment, which almost sounds like propaganda to me.
Posted by: Lenard | July 20, 2006 9:56 AM
Dear readers,
I still stand by my words, that G8 went great. I met with Illarionov few months ago and I can tell you first hand that the alternative G8 summit failed. I haven’t seen major news lines in major outlets describing the event. I think that very soon Bush and Blair’s wife will stop meeting with these folks – they are out of ideas and fashion these days. In my mind it was very important to see that Putin didn’t get questioned publicly about gas issues with Europe and human rights situation in Russia; this is a dramatic change. As per WTO – I think Kudrin’s statement wasn’t thought through and evaluated well enough; I doubt it was approved by the Kremlin. The Russian “success” really depends on how you look at it. I think that not being criticized and leaving the gas topic along was the success, because those were the subjects Russia was so getting ready to get scolded upon. And being realistic, what else can Russia expect from the world community these days? I think that hosting a safe and enjoyable event and not getting scolded as a middle-schooler, sadly is the success for Russia these days. Yes, sometimes I do take one-sided opinion, just to outweigh the general media’s reactions. These one-sided opinions aren’t always pro-Kremlin either – I see no visible success in the army or economic reform versus many international media outlets (read the recent posts), and I do not foster any ideas that Putin is strengthening Gazprom and Rosneft for the benefit of the Russians – it’s all personal profit and securing future “civilian” jobs for the “team”.
Thank you for the comments! We’re always open to them. Also, please feel free to submit your own articles, no matter how controversial they are with our points of view.
Yuri
Posted by: Yuri Mamchur | July 20, 2006 11:51 AM
Really?
Posted by: Michael Averko | July 20, 2006 10:23 PM
"I still stand by my words, that G8 went great. I met with Illarionov few months ago and I can tell you first hand that the alternative G8 summit failed."
I don't understand. How does speaking with Illarionov a few months before the alternative G8 summit tell you how it went? Wouldn't it be better to speak to him after it took place?
"G8 went great" and "the Russian “success” really depends on how you look at it"
Aren't these two statements rather large contradictions?
"I think Kudrin’s statement wasn’t thought through and evaluated well enough; I doubt it was approved by the Kremlin."
One of the highest-ranking Russian authorities is shown, in your opinion, to be a loose canon and you think that's a success?
You don't name a single substantive achievement of the meeting, and your first response to the list of failures is to talk about how the alternative meeting didn't succeed (without any evidence). Does Putin achieve "success" simply by destroying his enemies?
Not very convincing. Sounds like the kind of thing the old Politburo used to say to fool the public.
Posted by: Lenard Daulton | July 22, 2006 7:20 AM
Why are you don't respect Russia?
Posted by: Igor | July 24, 2006 4:23 PM
"One cause of the summit’s success was the pre-summit police work which prevented anti-globalists and other protesters from getting close the heart of the city. One of the protestor’s requests for an anti-globalization march was approved, but with one condition – the protestors had to march in circles around the soccer stadium on the outskirts of the city."
In my opinion this perfectly describes the failure of G8 St. Petersburg and displays to world how weak a leader Putin is - unable to take criticism, just like the old USSR.
Posted by: James | August 2, 2006 5:26 AM