Nowadays Russia is savoring the President’s annual address to the Federal Assembly. It’s not that this speech had any essential significance, as no one actually remembers all the previous Putin’s addresses, but what everyone knows for sure, is that these addresses never introduced any differences to their lives. In the absence of real politics, which scooped from the public sphere to the clandestine apartments, people are just curious – what the message was that Vladimir Vladimirovich wanted to deliver.

Right before Putin’s address the voice of U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney greeted Moscow from Vilnius, whose speech in Russia was compared to that of Winston Churchill at Westminster College in Fulton in 1946, which actually indicated the beginning of the Cold War. Vladimir Putin spoke on May 10, after the Victory Day, and everybody was expecting him to decently fight off the attack. “Our President has to give “them” an answer”, declared those patriotically-spirited. And “our President” did come up with an answer.

My neighbor Petrovitch, a man of simple character and good-natured disposition, took a philosophical approach to the President’s address. “A Regime of Day and Night”, he replied briefly to the request to give comments concerning the President’s speech. And then he specified: “We will produce weapons during the daytime, and produce people for the army at night”. Though Petrovich is kind of old to contribute to the improvement of demographic situation in Russia, he was excited to learn about Putin’s “night time assignment”. 10,000 dollars promised for the second child, did give him a boost. Unlike the officials, his desire (to support President’s appeal) is at least sincere. But expecting positive results in this case is simply impolite.

To be serious, though, the birth rate problem may not be solved just by aid program. Turning the birth of the second child into a business project by furnishing a financial assistance is possible. And definitely, many people will take part in this “children making process”, having no intention to care about the future of their babies. In this case life, which is undoubtedly the superior value, becomes just a consumer product, some side dish. What will come out of them, out of these sources of income? Wouldn’t they end up just being the source of the government’s headache instead. 

Besides, Russia’s demographic problem is not only about the birth rate: the death-rate in the country is very high. The average life expectancy rate is that of an under-developed country. Every day about hundred people die of counterfeit alcohol; 35,000 people die annually in car accidents; 50,000 people quit life voluntarily – we’re quite a suicidal country. Under given living conditions, granting new lives seems unethical.

It is worth mentioning that the President’s new initiative has revived the old issue. Political analysts have noted cautiously, that such populist measures to raise the birth rate in the country look a lot like measures to raise President’s ratings. And along comes Putin’s remark that “talking about terminating the arms race is ahead of time”, and that “it is entering a technologically new level”. Russia is prepared to respond to this challenge of the West and to enter this new level, not at the expense of bringing down the life standards but by means of “intellectual superiority”.

I am sure we do have an intellectual superiority, but it’s been a long time since we last made use of it. Talent, of course, won’t go anywhere, but doubts stay. The U.S. military budget, for instance, is 25 times as big as ours, and our brain cells will have a hard time beating their “buck power”. So, this statement was also a kind of populism and made the analysts sink into thoughts about Putin’s true intentions for the year 2008. All of his statements were not those of a person, about to abandon big politics.

Soon after his address Putin made clear how serious he was about his plans. He made stunning reshuffles in the Customs Committee, FSB, General Prosecutor’s Office, and Ministry of Interior, and promised to go on with dismissals. At the same time the President dismissed people who one way or the other were connected with the siloviki clan. The bureaucratic community shuddered – their pals are being eliminated! The operation was undertaken quietly and dartingly. Everybody was given a clear account of it, definitely not being a part of the PR-action. What exactly this is – a true fight with corruption? – will become clear very soon.  

Akram Murtazaev is a laureate of The Russian Journalist Award “Zolotoye Pero” ("The Golden Pen").

May 17, 2006