| Monday,
June 28, 2004. Page 8. The Moscow Times Editorial Building a Potemkin Civil Society The meeting last week between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and 48 Kremlin-friendly NGOs, billed as an attempt to listen to civil society, should not come as a major surprise. After cracking down on the media, reining in regional governors, cowing the oligarchs and establishing complete control over the State Duma, the Kremlin seems to have set its sights on harnessing the NGO sector. In contrast to the Kremlin-sponsored Civic Forum in November 2001, involving 5,000 NGO representatives, the guest list for last week's powwow was carefully screened. No awkward questions this time about human rights abuses in Chechnya from the country's most respected NGOs, such as the uninvited Memorial or the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers. Instead, NGOs were urged to get with the program and present a common front to international organizations such as the UN and the Council of Europe. Significantly, pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov, who together with spin doctor Gleb Pavlovsky was at the meeting with Lavrov, suggested that the Foreign Ministry might get involved in civil society contacts with the West, easing visa applications for foreign NGOs working with "friendly" Russian NGOs. For those NGOs outside the Kremlin's circle of trust, on the other hand, life promises to get distinctly chillier. Accusations by President Vladimir Putin in his state of the nation address last month that some NGOs were serving the "interests of dubious group and commercial interests" were widely interpreted as a declaration of open season on "disloyal" NGOs -- particularly those organizations that directly challenge the Kremlin line on sensitive issues such as Chechnya, or take funding from out-of-favor oligarchs. While cracking down on the NGO sector is fully within the Kremlin's capabilities, it will only open the regime up to further accusations of authoritarian leanings -- something it seems keen to avoid. Also, what looks like an unsubtle attempt to harness loyal NGO elements to the cause of deflecting foreign criticism and improving the authorities' image abroad could easily backfire -- leading to redoubled accusations of Soviet-style control-freakery. Putin and his ministers often talk of strengthening civil society and greater public oversight of the executive branch as prerequisites for improving the efficiency and accountability of government. In this, they are absolutely correct. But civil society and public oversight are not about the authorities only letting those NGOs that tell them what they want to hear (and whose sources of funding they control) have a say. Such an approach is pure "Potemkin village." |