Yes, Prime Minister?

In the news...President Putin signs an ambitious set of decrees.

The Russian Central Election Committee announced on May 12 that the Presidential election has cost the federal budget 10,375,318,000 roubles – that is just under £211m. From the government’s perspective it was, without a doubt, money well spent, given the quick and efficient job swap performed on May 7 by the President and the Prime Minister. But on his first day (back) in office, Vladimir Putin signed a number of decrees that appear to give the people of Russia a run for their money. Reading through some of them, you get the impression that the President has in mind a brand new country, so all-encompassing is the sweep of his suggested reforms.

There is a number of improvements clearly geared at immediate public appeasement: increasing satisfaction with government and municipal services, lowering living costs, increasing government transparency through the use of the internet, creating a fairer system for selection of government official, etc. For instance, the law concerning the improvement of the governing system includes a paragraph that supports the ‘Russian public initiative’, through which suggestions signed by 100,000 citizens will be considered by the government. Keeping in mind the ease with which Russian officialdom rejects as ‘invalid’ signatures needed for registration by presidential candidates, there is little likelihood that the government will be forced into considering anything it doesn’t already want to.

Paragraph K of the same decree calls for a ‘punishment through disqualification’ for any government or municipal worker for ‘rude and multiple’ violations of the standards of the services. Russia is still a country where hot water is turned off for weeks in the summer because of the condition of the pipes – in Moscow, of all places. Either standards will have to be lowered ever further, or the majority of municipal services will soon find themselves ‘disqualified’. Paragraph T calls for an ‘increase of access by the people to the judicial system’ and a further improvement of administrative judicial practices. There is, however, no indication about how this will be done. It is safe to assume that none of the suggestions made by Mikhail Khodorkovski will make it into the amendments.

Then come the more interesting aspirations. The decree concerning the Russian demographic situation opens with a demand to raise the birth coefficient and extend life expectancy to 74. Given that in 2011 there were 11 births and 16 deaths per 1,000, the law that encourages support for working mothers and low-income families makes sense. But the health laws begin to get a little out of hand. By 2018, the government hopes to reduce deaths from tuberculosis, reduce infant mortality rate, deaths from and in car accidents. An increase in public awareness of healthy eating, dangers of alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse are also on the agenda. Increasing Russian publications in international scientific journals to 2.44% and guaranteeing at least five Russian universities to be included in world’s top 100 by 2020 complete this ambitious scientific initiative.

What these decrees demonstrate, apart from an apparent desire to pander to the waves of civil discontent that engulfed the election, is not so much where Russia wants to be, but where it is now. All these endless lists of improvements only highlight the lack of reliable government services, a non-existent health care system, an educational system where diplomas are bought outright, including medical and surgical degrees. Just today, a Russian super-jet crashed in Indonesia. It was on a show mission around Asia, hoping to bring in a lucrative aviation contract. Although the causes of the crash are not known, there is a suspicion that the computers on board failed. The ballistic missile program has become a running joke in Russia, with eight successful launches out of 15 since 1998. The missile kept crashing either into the sea or onto the launch pad, with the only consolation being the absence casualties. Unfortunately, that is not the case in other aspects of Russian society plagued by technical failures, incompetence and criminal negligence. Even crossing the street in Moscow has become a deadly gamble as motorists consistently ignore traffic lights.

When leaders come to power, there is always a rush of optimism, hopeful promises, good intentions, all curtailed by reality in due course. But Putin has been in power for the past twelve years. Nothing prevented him from pushing for these reforms and seeing them into fruition by now. At least some of them.  But although many may argue that the situation in Russia has improved since Boris Yeltsin’s chaotic years – and this is only one side of a long and complicated debate – it is still so very far from the country envisioned in Putin’s fresh batch of decrees. If this is the kind of liberal, democratic, functional state he wants to live in, in his lifetime, he might just have to move to London,  like the rest of those fleeing his regime.