Surkov: dark prince of the Kremlin
He is also an intriguing personality, having apparently published a novel under one pseudonym, and then reviewed it (not entirely favourably) under another ..
.. Surkov’s philosophy from the first was that there is no real freedom in the world, and that all democracies are managed democracies, so the key to success is to influence people, to give them the illusion that they are free whereas in fact they are managed. The only freedom in his view is “artistic freedom”.
..the most eloquent defenders of Putin’s consolidation of the state and the leading advocate of the notion of ‘sovereign democracy”. Surkov can be defined as a “democratic statist”, and is thus not part of the ‘siloviki” faction, those associated with the security forces who advocate some sort of “iron hand”.
.. The theme of this speech reiterates his message of his years in the Presidential Administration: that there is no universal democracy, but only specific forms that reflect a country’s traditions, political culture and psychology. He supported the centralisation of power during Putin’s presidency, and thus his arguments contributed to the erosion of political pluralism and diversity. His views no doubt are contradictory, espousing the role of centralised leadership while at the same time extolling Russia’s tradition of local government (notably the zemstvosestablished by Alexander II) and insisting the “wholeness” is compatible with the competitiveness that is the hallmark of any democracy. His work is also concerned about developing a dynamic model of modernisation for Russia, but the rather heavy-handed model of political management that he practices runs counter to this ambition.
.. Surkov’s published works reveal engagement with these issues, accompanied by a playful self-awareness in which one senses that he is not taking all of this quite seriously. This is a dangerous combination. One can fear rulers when they believe in themselves, but when the authorities begin to treat power as a joking matter the mask slips and legitimacy wanes.