The nature of the rubble-clearing is easy to understand. The results are plain to see:

- the oligarchs have been intimidated and scattered;

- independent television broadcasting has been put through the meat-grinder;

- the war in Chechnya has been squeezed from media coverage;

- political opposition has been smashed to pieces;

- regional leaders have been turned into proteges of industry groups;

- Duma members have been turned into disciplined clones;

- the Federation Council has become a dumping-ground for unwanted friends;

- the Cabinet has become a pasture for wanted friends.

And to ensure that all these actions are correctly understood and approved by the citizenry, the media are closely monitored by the presidential administration.

Now that the presidential election has been successfully completed, conclusively confirming that the people approve of how the rubble has been cleared, an entirely new stage is beginning:

the stage of addressing national tasks.

As yet, we haven't understood exactly what is beginning - but we can already hear an ominous rumble, heralding significantly a deterioriation in living standards and restricted opportunities for improving them by political means.

Can you hear the distant thunder? Soon they'll abolish the concessions and privileges for all recipients. They will reform the housing and utilities - with all the consequences this entails.

They will privatize health care, turning all reasonably effective medical treatment into private enterprise. They will cut back higher education opportunities; and anybody who manages to obtain a college degree will be forced to work in their designated field for a specific period of time after graduation - in low-paying jobs, of course.

As a result, we'll be forced to spend much more on transport, medicines, education, housing, and health care - with less and less money left over for food, clothing, and recreation.

But that's not all. To all intents and appearances, even more surprises lie in store - and they'll make the abolition of privileges seem mild by comparison. For the sake of those surprises, the Duma is hastily passing amendments to the law on referenda which will make it impossible for anyone to organize a referendum without the backing of the authorities. Just in case: after all, what if some group of communists should seek to rally citizens in protest against addressing national tasks? Well, now they will face a barrier of unachievable referendum conditions, thus closing the last remaining small window through which the people could shout "No!" at the authorities.

Because you shouldn't quibble over petty details, comrades. Sit still and keep quiet; the regime knows what it's doing. And this is what the regime is doing: eliminating the remnants of socialism in the social sphere and switching to capitalism.

So everything in our state will be organized economically, with no excesses - as in the developed nations of Europe. Over there, for example, citizens pay the full cost of gas, water, heating, and telephone services - not just a small part of the cost, as we do.

And no one over there gets any concessions or privileges, since this is so uneconomical. After all, far from everybody in Russia who is entitled to concessions exploit them to the full; it transpires that some of the state funding allocated for all entitled to concessions is wasted. This is unacceptable to any prudent manager.

And health care over there is structured much more economically than it is here, without any of the extravagance and generosity which the state of developed socialism could permit itself to practise - a state where natural resources were used for the benefit of all, not just 500 people as is the casetoday.

So if we accept that a primary requirement for Russia's development is copying the West's structure in the social sphere, then the regime is doing everything right. But there's another question: is it really necessary to copy it so exactly?

After all, the health care system in Western nations, for example, is far from ideal. They are constantly working to perfect it - and they are taking the experience of the Soviet system into account, as it was by no means the world's worst system, and in many respects it was more advanced than the economic Western versions.

Besides, a number of things work in the West but won't work in Russia. For instance, it doesn't make sense to convert the Russian emergency medical aid system to focus on ambulance services - as the poor condition of Russia's roads, the distances involved, and the traffic jams mean that any ambulance trip is bound to take hours. For some patients this won't make a difference, but there are many conditions and injuries which require immediate medical aid to save lives.

City streets in the West have a special lane for ambulances that is not used by other vehicles. Everything happens fast there - as the roads are different, the distances are different, and attitudes to people are different. And it would be stupid for us to blindly copy their medical emergency system.

In fact, we shouldn't copy anything blindly. Our country's distinctive features are too striking and too substantial. Developments in Russia have never happened anywhere else. No other country has made the transition to capitalism after seventy years of communist lethargy, so there is no historical experience to draw on. We have to think up everything from scratch, develop everything ourselves, and be flexible in adapting general approaches to our broken, twisted realities.

How can elderly people in Russia be compared with those in capitalist nations?

Admittedly pensioners in the West don't get privileges and concessions; but they do get decent pensions. And during their working lives their wages were sufficient to enable them to buy homes, acquire property, invest in shares and securities. But our elderly people survived the war and devastation; they spent their whole lives working hard for the great Motherland, not saving anything - or even if they did save some money, it all disappeared during the currency reforms and defaults, and they haven't managed to acquire any part of the communal property into which they sank the labor of their lives.

Yet now they're being placed on the same footing as pensioners in the West: since the elderly don't get concessions over there, neither will the elderly in Russia.

This is unfair. It's sacrilegious. Worst of all, it's simply stupid. Social sector reforms as dumb as the current privatization of health care and abolition of concessions could only be "developed" by irresponsible, incompetent people: freeloaders who don't give a damn about what happens to the nation in the future, and are solely concerned about their own well-being - figuring that since they're in power, they should squeeze out every possible benefit for themselves and then disappear.

Reforms have to happen. But this should be done intelligently, carefully, with some foresight - not in the sloppy form today. The aggressive incompetence of the authorities constitutes the really big problem facing the nation as a whole. It needs to be resolved urgently and radically.

And another question: why is it necessary to start economizing in the social sphere, rather than elsewhere?

Why not start with state spending, kickbacks and appropriations, non-targeted expenditures, embezzlement and fraudulent tenders - all of which result in huge sums leaking from the state coffers into various pockets. After all, if order is restored in those areas, at least a third of the state's annual budget spending could be saved. Maybe even half.

But no - that can't be done. Who appropriates state funds? Who gets the kickbacks? "Our own people." Everyone is connected; no one can be touched. Don't interfere with the system, God forbid - you might be murdered for that. It's much better to economize on spending meant for the citizenry. The people are meek; they'll tolerate anything, especially if television broadcasts keep showing them mountains of gold.

Actually, from the state's point of view it doesn't matter where reforms start, as long as these beginnings lead to the long- term goal. But if the goal is indeed what the president has stated - "a mature democracy, a developed civil society, and a significant rise in prosperity" - then we can say at once that the current reforms won't bring us one iota closer to that goal.

Abolishing concessions and privileges for our senior citizens won't make us resemble a civilized state any more closely, since the "economic" structure of the social sphere in a civilized state is backed by a strong economy, financial transparency, and common human decency. But we don't have a trace of transparency or decency; and instead of a strong economy all we have is fraud, decorative elements, exaggeration and deception.

These social reforms will become yet another decorative element. On the exterior, everything will resemble a civilized state - but it will be rotten on the inside.

It's interesting how clearing away rubble has led to exactly the same result. That's fate, apparently.

See also:

Social Policies

Moskovskiy Komsomolets, June 11, 2004