What leaders DO: Vladimir Putin (part 2)
by Miki Saxon
Continuing from yesterday with comments on Russia’s Vladimir Putin Person of the Year through the eyes of a thirty-something Russian entrepreneur Nick Mikhailovsky, CEO of NTR Lab.
Most of Putin’s support by the nation comes from the growth of ordinary people’s living standards. The largest part of this economic equation—growth of oil prices—cannot be reasonably attributed to Putin’s effort, although people do associate their financial improvements with Putin. Also, to his merit is the fact that oil money has not run into other countries.
Actually, the stability and investment climate in the last four years has been extremely good and resulted in a large flow of capital into Russia. On the other hand, Putin’s administration has not been efficient in performing any complex economic reforms. Pension reform has actually failed, as did the program to provide people with reasonably prices real estate—while homes are built in record volume the prices have skyrocketed, especially in Moscow. Attempts to fight high inflation rates have also failed so far.
Yet another factor in the improvement of people’s living standards is the decline of street crime and the move of organized crime into legal business (the way it did in the US in the 1930s), but I am not sure that Putin has anything to do with that.
There are many less important things to discuss, but this is already way too long, so I will try to summarize:
Putin has been true to the national interests when and how he understood them, and reasonably efficient in achieving related goals. He has been lucky that oil prices have grown during his rule and has used this luck well enough. Russia has become more predictable during his rule and the business climate has
significantly improved, which resulted in significant growth of direct foreign investment in the last four years.
You can reach Nick at nickm@ntrlab.ru.
What do you think? Does Nick’s view of Putin match up with what you’ve read about him?
Your comments—priceless
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January 11th, 2008 at 9:43 am
It is great to get an insider’s impression because all I heard in western medias was how Russia was skidding back in totalitarism.
I have two questions for Nick.
The first one is whether the lack of press freedom is helping or hurting Russia currently (in particular , does it help rebuilding its national identity) ?
The second one is to know how well does Putin character’s line up with russian people’s expectations for good leadership ? (my a priori that Russia values strong autocratic leaders).
January 11th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Denis,
While the lack of press freedom is obvious, and its outcomes are extremely multifaceted, it is hard to predict the net impact, especially in process. To put it short, I don’t know.
As for expectations for good leadership I wouldn’t say that Russia apriory values autocratic leaders. Support for Gorbachev initially was about as high as for Putin now, although Gorbachev was definitely not an autocratic leader, nor a strong one, most likely. I believe that Russian people expect changes for better from a leader. For Gorbachev, the change was getting freedom. For Putin, getting out of poverty. Of course, if good changes wear off, support level declines.
I think these things on a basic level are more universal than country-specific. But, as we say here, everyone has problems: someone’s bread is too stale and someone’s pearls are too small. So there is county specific as well :)
January 12th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
All in all, these thoughts seem objective. It’s always easier to criticize from the outside without having direct experience. It’d be interesting to hear from Venezuelans.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
I agree, Ivan, that’s why I asked Nick to comment on Putin. Do you know anyone in Venezuela who could post on the subject?
January 13th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Unfortunately I don’t, but I thought it would be a similar case, in which a regimen that is mostly cast in a negative light is seen through the eyes of insiders. I’ll tell you if I find someone.