Andrei Illarionov Resigns Saying Russia is No Longer Free

Andrei Nikolaevich Illarionov is one of Russia’s economic bright lights. He got his PhD in economics (Marxist) in 1987 from Leningrad State University. Following a teaching and research period that lasted until 1993, Dr. Illarionov was the head of the Analysis and Planning Group of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the Government of the Russian Federation until 1994. He was director of the Institute of Economic Analysis from 1994 to 2000. President Vladimir Putin (former officer in the KGB) thought so highly of him that he appointed Dr. Illarionov his senior economic advisor in 2000. He quit this week, saying Russia was no longer a free country.

In Russia, freedom has been relative throughout its history. The oppressive secret police set up by Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (originally the Cheka and at various points the NKVD, MVD, and KGB) was modeled on the Okhrana of the Romanovs. Siberian prison camps predated Stalin by centuries. So, the idea of a “Free Russia” takes some getting used to for those with a sense of history.

Moreover, Dr. Illarionov is not without his quirks. He could be a Bushevik given his views on global warming and the Kyoto Protocol. The “ideology on which the Kyoto Protocol is based, is a new form of totalitarian ideology, along with Marxism, Communism, and socialism,” he has said. Also, he’s on record as stating, “No link has been established between carbon dioxide emissions and climate change. No other objective facts have been presented in recent time.”

However, Dr. Illarionov was on the inside of the Putin junta (and really, how can a junta be led by someone who bears such a striking resemblance to Dobby the House Elf in the Harry Potter films?). What apparently did him in was his resistance to the Russian Government’s theft last year of Yukos, the massive oil company, from the thieves who took it when the Soviet Union went out of business. He called it the “swindle of the year,” apparently forgetting the US presidential election. Once he went public with his complaints about a year ago, he lost his position as Russia’s representative to the G8.

So, in quitting, he told reporters, “It is one thing to work in a country that is partly free. It is another thing when the political system has changed, and the country has stopped being free and democratic. … I did not sign a contract with such a state.” As a result of the changes in Russia, it was "absolutely impossible to remain” in his post. “Until not long ago no one put any limits on me expressing my point of view. Now the situation has changed,” he said to the reporters.

One admires Comrade Putin’s political savvy and his effectiveness, while despising his KGB past. However, one can’t help but notice that Dr. Illarionov is not in Siberia or Lubyanka Prison after his talk with the reporters. No internal exile to Gorky like Andrei Sakharov suffered. He probably hasn’t had his bank accounts frozen, and he hasn’t been beaten to a pulp by the police. Dr. Illarionov may not live in a completely free state, but he seems to have forgotten what life was like when St. Petersburg was Leningrad.

© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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