Russia Profile, Russia
Feb 15 2007

For Our Own Good

Comment by Yelena Rykovtseva
Special to Russia Profile

Russians Have Little Say in Which Organizations the Country Joins

We ordinary people know little about the principles and inner
workings of various international organizations. Yet our opinions are
used by politicians to lobby for or against their country’s accession
to one of these bodies.

For example, a recent survey in Georgia asked whether people wanted
their country to join NATO, and the results of this poll allowed
Georgian parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze to announce with joy
at the recent NATO meeting in Riga that 75 percent of her countrymen
are in favor of joining. Most Ukrainians, meanwhile, are likely to
agree with the opinion of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, voting
against the question of potential Ukrainian membership in the
alliance.

But if the same question were put to a vote in Russia, the result
would be utter confusion: has Russia really been asked to join NATO?
And if Russia has not been, what’s the point of asking whether or not
we want to join if we won’t be accepted under any circumstances?
These were the kind of responses I got from listeners of my radio
program when I put the question to them of whether Russia should be
involved in international institutions.

Yet there was even more uncertainty regarding relations within the
CIS, an organization with which most Russians are more familiar. One
of my guests on the program, Georg Khachaturyan, a political
columnist for the Arminfo news agency, had problems understanding the
logic behind Russia’s relationships with its neighbors. For example,
Russia and Armenia have a strategic partnership agreement and Russia
frequently calls Armenia its most faithful ally in the South
Caucasus.

Nonetheless, Russia also raised gas prices for Armenia. Then, due to
the conflict between Russia and Georgia, the border crossing at
Verkhny Lars has been closed for several months. This action caused
virtually no damage to Georgia, but inflicted huge damages on
Armenia, since the country is still being blockaded by Turkey and
Azerbaijan. Verkhny Lars was the only thread connecting Armenia to
the outside world, through Georgia, to Russia and beyond. But this
passage was closed.

`Russia argues with Georgia, and turns off Armenia’s oxygen. These
sorts of actions are offensive and baffling. You don’t do that to
friends,’ Khachaturyan told the audience.

At least most Russians know something about the CIS. The World Trade
Organization, on the other hand, remains a complete mystery. No one
has asked Russians about Russia’s membership in the WTO – instead there
has been a bitter, long war between groups of influential politicians
and businessmen.

Now that an agreement with the United States has been reached,
newspapers are now writing about Russia’s WTO membership as a fait
accompli, describing the positives and the negatives of membership to
their readers. Now we can see that imported goods – clothes, household
appliances and medicines – will become cheaper. Software, music and
videos may become more expensive, since part of the agreement
involved harsher penalties for intellectual property violations. The
downside of joining the WTO will be felt the most by Russian
producers, who will find it harder to compete with cheaper imports.

But despite the benefits to ordinary people, most Russians expect
nothing good from WTO membership. When I asked my listeners about it,
some responded with a kind of chest-beating patriotism: `Russia is a
self-sufficient country; Russia has everything. Russia only needs
good relations with neighboring states.’ Others were convinced that
the WTO is only the latest body to exploit Russia for its own good:
`Remember COMECON, remember the Warsaw Pact. We were always the
backbone, and sometimes the cash cow as well. It’ll be the same in
the WTO. They want to force the cash cow to give more milk, and
preferably for a lower price.’

My Armenian guest countered this cleverly: `This cash cow has to eat
something in order to produce milk. On its own, it can’t guarantee
enough food for itself. Such isolation from the outside world is
probably not worth the risks.’ But he did not convince my listeners.

There were very few people in favor of Russia joining the WTO, and
those who did express this opinion seemed to embrace liberal ideas:
`If Russia has aspirations to be a civilized state, it should try to
join as many international organizations as possible.’

Throughout the discussion, two major positions crystallized – `Don’t
join, because Russia will be robbed blind’ and `Join, because
otherwise we will die in isolation.’ And it was obvious that neither
opinion was based on any knowledge of the real issues at stake.

This was not completely the fault of my audience. They are simply the
victims of experts, politicians and businessmen who see no need to
inform the public of their decisions. Russia’s leaders present its
people with a fait accompli and then commission public opinion
surveys in order to use the results to advance their own political
aims.

Besides being married to Alexei Pankin, Yelena Rykovtseva is a
correspondent for Radio Liberty. She contributed this comment, which
represents her own views and not those of Radio Liberty, to Russia
Profile.