No more Western hugs for Russia's rulers

„This year started quite symbolically in Russia. In the last days of 2010, government authorities decided to demonstrate their power and their intolerance for being challenged: The verdict issued at the farcical trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev had no relation to jurisprudence; leading opposition figures were detained for as many as 15 days on purely political grounds.

These heavy-handed actions set a peculiar stage for President Dmitry Medvedev's address at the World Economic Forum. Nevertheless, the intelligent and well-informed audience in Davos enthusiastically applauded his nice words about Russia's economic modernization and dynamic democratic development. International business leaders seem to accept his complaints that few Russians understand his great plans for the country's future, which greedy oligarchs and corrupt officials from the 1990s prevent him from undertaking. It is obvious that Russia's economy and political system desperately need comprehensive modernization. But authorities' increasingly oppressive activities are following a different course.

Contrary to the wishful thinking many in Russia and abroad expressed when Medvedev took office - by de facto appointment - in 2008, his presidency has demonstrated no signs that his pro-democracy rhetoric might turn into real action. In fact, the opposite is true. This period was marked by increasingly restricted and falsified elections; war against Georgia; eased constraints on the use of armed forces abroad; the torture and death in custody of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for the police-raided investment fund Hermitage Capital; police lawlessness and corruption; and continued oppression of political opponents and dissent. European energy consumers have experienced supply cutoffs, just one form of Russia's open pressure on its neighbors. Blatant hooliganism of pro-Kremlin youth organizations is promoted.”