Letters from Strasbourg: Quo Vadis, Russia?

Andrzej Szustak is a Polish student, who interned with the Welsh Liberal Democrats during the summer before going on to study in Strasbourg. Here Andre continues his series of ‘Letters from Strasbourg’ expressing personal views of the UK and the EU from the European mainland.

On 2nd October the City of Strasbourg and the Council of Europe invited Mikhail Gorbachev to deliver a lecture to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  It was not only an opportunity to think about the past and the changes that took place in Europe but it was also a very good occasion to reflect on contemporary Russia.

Gorbachev was the last General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He took power at a relatively young age (53 in comparison with Brezhnev, Cherenkov or Andropov who were in their seventies) and his idea was to rescue the USSR by letting the satellite communist states such as Eastern Germany, Poland or Czechoslovakia free and focusing on the reforms in Russia and in the communist republics. To some extent, Gorbachev wanted to be a Russian Deng Xiaoping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, who liberalised the Chinese economy while preserving the communist state institutions. History shows that changes in Russia went another way. The Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian Federation started to democratise and to open up to the West, and the West tried to open up to Russia offering loans, membership of the Council of Europe and partnership with NATO. Internally, however, Russia was as weak as never before in its modern history and as  Gorbachev said in his speech last Friday, ‘while being praised for the reforms and liberalisation, the Russian government was more and more criticised by their own citizens for growing corruptions, poverty, delinquency and disintegration of the state.’

The experience of the last two decades provokes the question: can Russia be strong and at the same time can the Russian government respect the rules of crucial importance for Europeans such as freedom of speech, human rights and democracy. Russia remains a member of the Council of Europe although the situation in Chechnya, the murders of journalists or political activists (e.g. Anna Politkovskaia or Natalia Estemirova) are far from the standards accepted by other members of this organisation.

In his speech Gorbachev referred numerous times to his idea of the Common European Home – a concept of cooperation of all European states over existing divisions. He also stressed that Russians – like everyone else – do not like to be patronised and that cooperation with Russia should be based on partnership and a dialogue. When asked about the possibility of Russian access to the EU, Gorbachev replied that it would be not possible at the moment because “neither Russia nor the EU are prepared for that”. 

Undoubtedly, Gorbachev is right about the need for dialogue and partnership between West and East. The only question is how the European Union could prepare for eventual Russia partnership and what sort of values we could acquire from modern Russia?

Related posts:

1. Letters from Strasbourg: don’t rule out a European army
2. Letters from Strasbourg: The EU on full alert – Cameron’s coming!
3. Letters from Strasbourg: How far can we go from Lisbon in a Mercedes?