Russia: It's time to be Europe

Today's Russia is drifting between nationalism and crisis. Prospects for future years and the destiny of Putinism. Russian liberals raise their heads and propose a new Holy Alliance with European countries and America on the historic mission of Russia, European civilization, the reception of migrants from Africa and Asia. The analysis of the economist Vladislav Inozemtsev.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - In recent times Russia seems to be enveloped in winds of uncertainty and confusion. And despite the apparent firmness of President Putin's policy, and the thaumaturgical visit of the relics of St. Nicholas of Bari to Moscow and St. Petersburg. An emblematic image of this ambiguous condition was the 29th May, when a real tornado devastated the streets of the capital leaving 11 dead and many dozen injured. Well, the crowd in the queue to pay tribute to the relics of the saint did not disappear, clinging to the fences and mutually supportive. The more robust sheltered the fragile, fearing the hurricane would sweep them away.

The continuing tension with Ukraine, the uncertain outcomes of the Syrian war operations, the roller-coaster relationship with Trump’s America, a source of continuous scandals, but also the protests of young people against government corruption and terrorist threats that continue after the terrible bombing of St. Petersburg on 3 April: internal and external reasons for concern are not lacking in Russia. In view of the 2018 political elections, which will give Putin his fourth presidential mandate (plus the prime minister's intercession) in 20 years, the country feels the need to rediscover the motives of stability and its well-being guaranteed by the nationalist policies of the turn of the century.

But it is precisely the spirit of national pride that has been in crisis over the past few months, three years after the triumphal annexation of the Crimea, which consecrated Putin as one of the great victors of Russian history, on the same pedestal of Stalin (victor over the Nazis) , Alessandro I (who drove out Napoleon) and Ivan the terrible (who defeated the Mongols). The liberal opposition, reduced to a flicker by the blinding rule of the new czar, now seem to be regaining a bit of credibility and to have found their voice. The liberals have been charged with all the flaws of Russian fragility in post-communist era: enslavement to the immoral and degraded West; The end of socialism that opened the doors to predatory oligarchs; The political fragmentation that prevented the stability of governments and jeopardized the security of citizens; etc. Today's proposals by the Liberals may perhaps lead to greater listening among the population.

An example of this renewed reformist and modernizing spirit is the opinion of one of the most authoritative commentators in the democratic field, Vladislav Inozemtsev, who intervened last May 30 with an important editorial on RBK, one of the most popular and credible information media in the country, Entitled Europe’s heirs: how to heal the Russians from the nostalgia for the empire. According to the Economist and Director of the Research Center on post-industrial society, by the year 2024 (Putin's next mandate), Russian society will be at breaking point with an economy already largely in crisis,  and the population’s  growing discontent and fatigue towards its rulers and the dominant ideology, so "we might as well start talking about it today."

Russian voters have so far been "hypnotized" by the propaganda of post-Soviet nostalgia, the apologetics of war and territorial expansion, the exaltation of the past, and contempt of the future. To free Russians from this spell, Inozemtsev says liberals have to stop seeing themselves as dissenting heroes in search of western approval as if they alone were partisans of civilization, and instead look for convincing arguments.

The historical mission of Russia and Europe

A first argument concerns the historical mission of Russia, a perpetual theme of the consciousness of the "Eurasian" people, undecided between East and West. Rather than continuing to defend its exaggerated frontiers from the enemies all around, and in particular from the eternal American enemy (the West), Russia should believe in a Eurocentric world in which Russia and America are not the victors of Europe, rather its young and powerful heirs. It is the idea of ​​a "northern alliance" of the world, which would also save us from the extreme polarization between China and America, the so-called Chimeric power (China + America). Indeed, while occupying one third of the Asian lands (with only 50 million out of 150 of its population), Russia remains a European people by blood and culture, even with the genetic grafting of the Tatars that dominated it for two centuries (but the Tatars too, are a mix of Turks and Mongols).

According to Inozemtsev, there is also a deeper and more decisive argument for the most conservative part of the population,  that part which mainly refers to the Orthodox Church and to the country's "religious rebirth", and which could be used as a proof of Russia’s superiority in the world. The union of Russia with Europe would be a decisive move also from the point of view of the rescue of the same European civilization and its Christian roots, blurred by the secularization of Western European countries: only a great alliance between orthodox, Catholic and Protestant would bring the Christian continent to its great traditions and the exaltation of its deepest moral values. It is in fact also the opinion shared by the same Patriarch of Moscow and of many representatives of the Catholic world, starting with the popes -  past and emeritus  - and also by Pope Francis.

Not only moral values ​​but also the same European population would be saved by embracing its more eastern members: this would also rebalance the percentages of immigrants, favoring a large integration that can also accommodate those who come from the Middle East, Asia and Africa, which today feel particularly marginalized. Other topics are geopolitical issues of territorial expansion, control over the most threatened areas of the Middle East and North Africa, and also of the economy, which would all have to gain from the creation of a truly pan-European market of 700 million and beyond people. It can be discussed, Russian liberals say; the time has come for Europeans to emerge from the bonds of division and distrusts. After all, the European part of Russia covers almost half of the entire continent: there is no Europe without Russia.

• Russia
• asia
• united states of america
• economy
• vladimir putin
• ecumenism
• dialogue
• migrants