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The future that young Russians want
The Putin generation is often worldly, optimistic, and enthusiastic about democracy – as they define it.
from the February 26, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 4
This prosperity has contributed to a sense of stability after a decade-long experiment with liberal democracy that seared the national psyche. A rich minority gobbled up massive assets amid rapid privatization even as 40 percent of the country languished in poverty. An increasingly weak Boris Yeltsin embarrassed his countrymen with drunken blunders abroad.
By contrast, Putin centralized power, removed oligarchs such as jailed Yukos oil company chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky from the political sphere, and took a tough stance internationally on issues like energy supply.
"Putin should be given credit for improved living standards, reasserting Russia on the world stage, and taking politics under control without antagonizing the public," says Masha Lipman, a liberal political analyst at Moscow's Carnegie Center.
The Young Guard at work
At the Moscow headquarters of United Russia's Young Guard, Shchitov has headed up public relations and youth relations since April, running meetings with a dozen or so deputies from the head of a glossy wooden table. At the end of one long day, at a favored cafe around the corner from his home, a visibly weary Shchitov articulates his mission: to groom a new generation of leaders who will build on the momentum of Putin's tenure.
Blaming the Soviet Union's collapse on a lack of fresh ideas among graying politicians, Shchitov has helped to establish unofficial youth parliaments in 104 of the 125 districts in the Moscow region since last February. He has gained valuable political experience as a member of the capital's youth parliament, which meets monthly and, in its first year, has gotten 46 of its 75 amendments to youth laws ratified by the city parliament through regular meetings with lawmakers.
He even won the "development of civil society institutions" category in a 2007 contest of youth projects sponsored by Putin's administration – an initiative he realizes some would see as ironic.
Shchitov loves Putin's sharp wit and admires the way he has helped Russia to shed its "younger brother" status among nations – singling out Putin's achievement of landing the 2014 Olympic Games. "It proves," he says, "that the development of Russia has reached the level of an equal partner of European states or the US."
He espouses the administration's ideology of "sovereign democracy," a term that supporters say describes a form of democracy uniquely suited to Russia's needs, implemented free from interference.
Calling it Putin's answer to criticism from President George Bush about an authoritarian drift in Russia, Shchitov explains, "We don't want to be an Iraq or Afghanistan"– a reference to what he sees as unsuccessful bids to impose democracy.
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