Pictured with the flag is Boris Yeltsin, who served as the president of Russia from 1991 to 1999. The picture dates from August 22, 1991, and was taken in Moscow. I retrieved this picture from a posting on Consortium News, and I would be delighted if anyone reading this blog posting would also take the time to read the article from which I obtained the picture. I don't think there is any paywall to prevent you from clicking right through. Here's a link to the article I am referencing:
The article in Consortium News was published on January 1, 2025, and was written by Natylie Baldwin, an independent writer specializing in Russia and U.S.-Russia relations. She authors a blog, entitled, "Natalie's Place: Understanding Russia."
In the Consortium News article, Baldwin conducts an interview with E. Wayne Merry, who is a Senior Fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the American Foreign Policy Council, a conservative nonprofit located in Washington, DC. The interview presents Merry's reflections on his 1994 State Department telegram concerning Western relations with post-Soviet Russia, which has only recently ben published by the National Security Archive. Here is a short summary of that 1994 telegram:
Titled provocatively “Whose Russia Is It Anyway? Toward a Policy of Benign Respect,” the Merry long telegram argued that radical market reform was the wrong economic prescription for Russia, with its history of statist direction of the economy, uncertainty of political transition and extreme challenges of geography and climate. The message described “shock therapy” as so visibly Washington’s program that the devastating austerity already evident in 1994 was blamed on the U.S., and the long-term consequences would “recreate an adversarial relationship between Russia and the West.” Plus, Merry warned, “we will also fail on the economic front.”
The United States did not follow a policy of "benign respect" in its relationship to Russia, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In general, the United States government's attitude towards Russia was the opposite of "respect." I have a neighbor who is an expert in Soviet politcs and social policy, and his personal outrage about the United States' treatment of the former Soviet Union - now "Russia" - bubbles forth, not infrequently, as we discuss current events, including the War in Ukraine, which my friend believes was, essentially, started by the United States.
Baldwin's article focuses on the choice made by the United States to urge "free market" reforms, as opposed to "political" reforms, post the dissolution of the Soviet Union. She and Merry both argue that the Russian people were not, particularly, willing to try to advance an "individualist" economic system, being used to a more "collectivist" approach. What the Russian people might have appreciated more than pressure to open up a "free market economy" was a focus on political "democracy," what I generally call "self-government." The course of world history might have been quite different had we taken the approach that Merry suggested.
My own thought, as I have read through the materials I came across thanks to the article in Consortium News, is that our own political and governmental challenges are now ones that revolve around "self-government," not a "free market" approach to our economy.
What the "free market" has brought us, since the "Reagan Revolution," is vastly-increased income inequality, and a growing tendency towards autocracy - the very same things we see in Russia today. The "billionaire bros," like Elon Musk, who increasingly dominate our economy and politics, are local parallels to the economic "oligarchs" that dominate Russia.
Watch out, in other words! We seem to be making the same mistake today, vis a vis what needs to happen here in the United States, that the United States made, in terms of its foreign policy, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The last line of Baldwin's article is a statement by Merry: "Humility would be a great asset in U.S. policy, but I do not expect to live to see it."
Humility? Have you ever noticed the approach taken by Musk and his presidential sidekick, Donald Trump? There is not a whole lot of "humility" on display, is there? Watch out!
Oh, yeah, I already said that once, didn't I?
It bears repeating!
Image Credit:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!