As Russia is downgraded to "not free," is it fit to head the G-8? (01/08/06)

As Russia is downgraded to "not free," is it fit to head the G-8?

by Taras Kuzio
Eurasia Daily Monitor

It is perhaps fitting that the Ukraine-Russia gas conflict has rekindled debates whether Russia truly belongs in the prestigious G-8 group of advanced liberal democratic market economies. The Wall Street Journal Europe (January 3) editorialized that, "All of this makes Russia's assumption of the G-8 presidency this month not just ironic but almost as absurd as when Sudan chaired the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Moscow's inclusion in the club was never (and still isn't) justified on economic grounds."

The conservative Daily Telegraph (January 3) wrote more bluntly still: "The West has to tell Russia that, plainly and simply, its conduct is unacceptable if it wishes to remain part of the club of civilized nations."

The New York-based human rights tank Freedom House's 2006 world human rights report shows the degree to which there is a total mismatch in Russia's presidency of the Group of Eight and its downgrading from "partly free" to the status of "not free" (freedomhouse.org). This has taken place in the same year as Freedom House upgraded Ukraine from "partly free" to "free."

The Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute, therefore, no longer a conflict between two former Soviet republics but a conflict between an autocratic, non-democratic regime headed by "Putin's Mafia Politics" (Wall Street Journal Europe, January 3) and a democratizing regime headed by Viktor Yushchenko. As The Daily Telegraph (January 3) pointed out, "The methods of gangsterism and blackmail now being used by Gazprom are reminiscent of the Soviet era."

Russia's downgrading to not free places it on a par with other autocratic, non-democratic regimes in the CIS such as its client state Belarus, Azerbaijan, and all five Central Asia states except Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan is the exception because its Tulip Revolution led Freedom House to upgrade it from partly free to not free. Kyrgyzstan joins Georgia, Armenia and Moldova as the CIS four partly free states. In being downgraded Russia has joined seven not free CIS states.

One reason Russia's status was downgraded to that of not free is that the authorities hostility to NGOs and civil society has steadily grown. In late December 2005 both houses of the Russian Parliament approved a new law requiring NGOs to re-register and making it more difficult for those re-registered to obtain foreign funding.

Such restrictions on civil society inside Russia are only the latest in salami tactics used by President Vladimir Putin against the media, regional governors, oligarchs and democratic political parties. Russia's attitudes toward civil society place it squarely in the same camp as the last dictatorship in Europe - Belarus - which is propped up by Russian gas subsidies.

Both Russia's and Belarus views on civil society as only being able to exist because of foreign funding are inherited from the former USSR when dissidents were routinely accused of being CIA or Zionist agents. These Soviet views are added to by equally Soviet-era conspiracy theories that blame the colored revolutions on the U.S.

Freedom House downgraded Russia to not free because of the marginalization of the political opposition, state control of the media, decline in independent judiciary, growth of "anti-democratic tendencies," and pressure on civil society. These are all areas where Freedom House noted improvements in Ukraine.

Freedom House also rightly condemned (before the gas conflict erupted) Russia's attempts at undermining democratic progress in the CIS. A final factor in downgrading Russia was Moscow's support for anti-democratic regimes in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In contrast, Ukraine is the first CIS state to join the free group of countries in the world. This places it in the lead among the four post-Communist states that have experienced colored revolutions (Serbia [2000], Georgia [2003], Kyrgyzstan [2005]). Freedom House upgraded Ukraine to just inside the free group of states.

In being upgraded, Ukraine has joined the 12 East-Central European states out of 27 post-Communist states also designated as free. Three East-Central European and four CIS states are defined as "partly free," while Russia and six other CIS states are "not free."

Thus, these designations show the degree to which post-Communist states in East-Central Europe and the CIS are radically diverging. They also show how 2004-2005 were pivotal years where Russia and Ukraine diverged in their paths - the former towards autocracy and the latter towards democracy.

Few Western commentators have bothered to connect Russia's growing autocracy and undemocratic regime at home with a return to a neo-Soviet aggressive foreign policy. It is now evident that Russia's aggressive stance toward Ukraine both in the gas conflict, and during the 2004 presidential elections, show how Russia's domestic and foreign policies are closely woven.

The resignation of Russian presidential adviser Andrei Illarionov on the eve of the gas conflict brought home this inter-connection. The use of gas pressure, Mr. Illarionov claimed, was first tested inside Russia during regional governor elections. After their success, the Russian authorities decided to apply them to foreign countries (grani.ru, December 21).

Recent events in the gas dispute, and Freedom Houses designations, have also brought home another close connection between Russia's undemocratic domestic policies and its support for autocratic regimes abroad. Of the six CIS states that are designated by Freedom House as not free, four are politically aligned with Russia (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan).

Russia supported Uzbekistan's brutal massacre of civilians in May 2005 which led to Tashkent's re-alignment from the U.S. to Russia. Freedom House defines Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as two of the eight worst human rights offenders in the world.

During President George W. Bush's second term, the U.S. has gradually become more aware of the inter-connection between Russia's undemocratic domestic and aggressive external policies. But, it is "old Europe' inside the European Union that is now finally having to come to terms with the real Russia under President Putin.

Germany has already changed its view of Russia after the Social Democrats lost the elections. But, traditionally Russophile France continues to hold on a view of Mr. Putin's Russia that, as the gas conflict proves, is out of touch with reality.

Dr. Taras Kuzio is visiting professor at the Elliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University. The article above, which originally appeared in The Jamestown Foundation's Eurasia Daily Monitor, is reprinted here with permission from the foundation (www.jamestown.org).

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