Sincere Man

Global Investing, BRIC by BRIC

I'm not Russian, but spent many years of my life there, both recently and in Soviet times. There are lot of progress made in Russian macro-economic framework, but the country remains institutionally vulnerable. The average Russian citizen are stupidly proud of the authoritarian style of their governments. The elections there are a farse, but all the population make believe they live in a western-styled democracy. They do not elect their regional governments, which are pointed by central government with quite unclear criteria. There has been even an extremely ridiculous case of a magnate turned governor in a far Siberian region where he rarely visited even after becoming "elected" Governor! But for the Russians it's OK. They don't care about such small politic details. Russia has problems with most of their neighbours: the affair are always problematic from the Baltic countries to the Caucasus. Most Russians are proud of their government for the aggressive "undiplomatic" ways to deal with the neighbouring countries. The whole Russian population applauded when TV showed spectacles of deportation of Georgian citizens. Russians believe their government is right and fair and that the problems are on their neighbours side! The mayor of Moscow is a rare case of an servant who made an astonishing fortune during his endless terms in city's government and now he is ranked among the richest people in Russia. Everybody in Russia knows the man and his wife are big corrupts, but nobody cares about this fact. On the contrary, the mayor of Moscow is one of the most beloved politicians in Russia, because he is considered to be a good mayor! So... that's today's Russia: a country with huge institutional vulnerabilities and a population making believe they live in a normal democratic country. They have no demand toward democracy, they seem to be fully satisfied with their KGB-tyranny.
As always in history, the Russians get adapted to any political disgrace and even feel comfortable in it. But I do hope they will never more experience any tragedy like that ones that take place in Russia from time to time.