13 February 2012
Who are those thousands of people demonstrating in the streets of Moscow in bitter temperatures, and what do they want? A long-time commentator talks to INSEAD Knowledge.
by Shellie Karabell
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has presented a list of reforms he promises to make if elected President on March 4, but hundreds of thousands demonstrators in Moscow and other cities across the country don't believe him. The list contains such promises as a more transparent and equitable tax code, an end to some of the red tape constricting business creation, and improvements to the country's transit systems. Welcome ideas, but according to journalist-commentator-university lecturer Artyom Troitsky, few believe Putin is capable of making real reforms.
"If Putin does become president, there is going to be a significant portion of the population who will be seriously unhappy," claims Troitsky. "We're talking about a mixed bag of people - the young, the middle class, the "creative class" of entrepreneurs and IT workers who are concerned about the future of Russia."
Troitsky spoke with INSEAD Knowledge on the sidelines of a media conference in Moscow on February 2 explaining INSEAD's massive year-long executive education programme designed especially for 500 employees of Russia's 170-year-old Sberbank, the largest bank by market cap in Eastern Europe and one of Russia's biggest employers.
He believes - as reported in the press and echoed in the streets - that Putin will win the up-coming elections, but will not last out the term and won't stand for the next election. "They will win, but it will not be a “real election”. They will have their machine in place, as in Egypt; and look what happened there." But Troitsky does not believe Russians want a violent end to the Putin regime. "Most people would rather be in their dachas or at brunch in a restaurant somewhere than demonstrating in the streets in 20-below temperatures," he says.
The admittedly bohemian Troitsky says businessmen and women have an important role to play in Russia-after-Putin. "One of the main objections to the Putin regime is that is totally corrupted. It is run by theft and rackets and is totally uncontrollable. We need well-educated young people in banks, in industry, in agriculture, in media who understand that corruption doesn't work: it's bad for the country and for everything except maybe for their own pockets. But even those pockets could burn. So they must follow a path of transparency. It's the only way."
