Russia's Staged State of the Nation

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev delivered his second state-of-the-nation address before the Russian parliament on Thursday. The speech's sternness and substance sounded like a sharp break with Russia's political and economic stagnation under President-turned-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was seated in the front row as Medvedev spoke. No longer could the country continue its "humiliating" resource dependency, Medvedev said; no longer could business make a living simply by trading in foreign goods; no longer could the crisis -- which, Medvedev admitted, hit Russia especially hard -- be blamed on others.

For an hour and 40 minutes, Medvedev went on in front of an increasingly fidgety audience, spotlighting with admirable candor the things that are slowing Russia's progress into modernity. Some of his proposals -- like reducing the number of Russian time zones and introducing dance instruction in schools -- were bizarre. But the vast majority was amazingly spot-on, tough-love material more often heard in Western think tanks and opposition papers. Medvedev was telling Russians what they needed to hear: sink or swim. And, to the untrained ear, it sounded like a definitive break with the reign of Putinism, a legacy of corruption and autocracy to which Medvedev seemed to be setting himself up as a liberal foil.

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But like many Kremlin initiatives, Medvedev's new "openness" was a show, carefully staged and tested and re-tested. Two months ago, the president published an article titled "Onward, Russia!" in the online liberal newspaper, Gazeta.ru. It was a strange -- and strangely critical -- editorial, asking Russians why they clung to the past, to the addiction to natural resources, to corruption. It asked them, in an almost Obama-like way, to stop looking for blame abroad and to look for solutions at home, to move forward, to modernize. Medvedev even gave readers an email address where anyone could send their "practical plans for the development of our state." "Modernization," the editorial's leitmotif, instantly monopolized Russian political discourse.

Over the next two months some 30,000 people responded -- including one much-publicized futorologist. This was a signal from the Kremlin, a trial balloon for the November presidential address (much of which is generally passed quickly into law by the rubber-stamp Duma), and so there was daily speculation about what Medvedev would mention, and what he'd relegate to the radioactive bin. The essay's unprecedented openness -- or at least seeming openness -- piqued the interests of the chattering classes.

By the time the speech came, there was a twin feeling of suspense -- what will he say? -- and absolute apathy - we already know what he'll say.

The speech, when it came, was both surprisingly forthright and familiarly false-bottomed.

Modernity was the word of the day, as expected: Just as Russia once forged ahead through great sacrifice to become a major 20^th-century power, Medvedev said, "in the 21^st-century, our country again cannot do without all-encompassing modernization." And modernization à la Medvedev means technological innovation and the establishment of a Silicon-Valley-type center of ingenuity; making sure that at least 50 percent of medicines are manufactured in Russia; tossing up more satellites into space; cleaning out the ranks of the corrupted police force; jailing corrupt bureaucrats and covering the country in a blanket of broadband Internet; raising pensions; supporting NGOs and opening the electoral system; strengthening civil society and improving the education system; getting a handle on the hurly-burly of the North Caucasus and putting an end to "puffing out our cheeks" in foreign policy.

And Medvedev had the courage to talk of reforming Russia's essentially one-party, Kremlin-controlled political system, and even made a meaningful gesture -- eliminating signature-gathering as a prerequisite for participating in elections (this is the main tool to disqualify unfriendlies). But all pretense fell away as soon as he said, "On the whole we can say that the multi-party system in the Russian Federation has come together."

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