Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09MOSCOW3104
2009-12-24 08:08:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Moscow
Cable title:  

CONSTITUTION'S 15TH BIRTHDAY MORE OF A FUNERAL

Tags:  PREL PGOV PHUM KDEM RS 
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VZCZCXRO4934
RR RUEHDBU
DE RUEHMO #3104/01 3580808
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 240808Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5779
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 003104 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KDEM RS
SUBJECT: CONSTITUTION'S 15TH BIRTHDAY MORE OF A FUNERAL

Classified By: Acting DCM Susan Elliott for reason 1.4 (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 003104

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KDEM RS
SUBJECT: CONSTITUTION'S 15TH BIRTHDAY MORE OF A FUNERAL

Classified By: Acting DCM Susan Elliott for reason 1.4 (d)


1. (C) Summary: The Russian Constitution's fifteenth
anniversary passed on December 12 with little fanfare. A
VTsIOM poll showed that only 16 percent of respondents had
read the Constitution and knew its contents. Many of the
Constitution's authors feel disillusioned, noting that its
provision for a strong executive branch has helped enable
authoritarianism. The relative absence of rule of law in
Russia has given rise to a parallel society, existing
alongside the government, in which a cynical populace shows
little respect for public institutions. Although the
short-term prognosis for rule of law is bleak, some pragmatic
activists are laying plans for a new strategy to overcome
cynicism and apathy, especially among youth, by increasing
awareness of people's fundamental rights. End Summary.

"The worst scenario has come true"
--------------


2. (C) When the Constitution of the Russian Federation took
effect in 1994, a number of liberals still had hopes of
enshrining human rights in the founding documents of the new
Russia. However, at this point many of the Constitution's
authors feel disillusioned. The Constitution's fifteenth
anniversary passed on December 12 with little fanfare, and a
series of hand-wringing articles in liberal print media
publications noted a VTsIOM poll showing that only 16 percent
of respondents had read the Constitution and knew its
contents. Nikolay Popov of VTsIOM told us December 17 that
this figure was probably even smaller, as he believed many
respondents were embarrassed to admit to pollsters that they
knew nothing of the Constitution's contents.


3. (C) One of the Constitution's drafters, Oleg Rumyantsev of
the Fund for Defense of the Constitution, told us December 18
that "the worst scenario has come true." Rumyantsev
explained that the Constitution's initial draft gave the
State Duma greater control over the executive branch of
government, but that this version did not survive the intense
debates among the document's framers. At the time, it may
have appeared necessary to shore up Yeltsin's strength
against a recalcitrant Duma with a revanchist "Soviet"

element (especially since tensions with the Duma exploded in
the infamous 1993 shootout at the White House). However,
Rumyantsev lamented that the resulting Constitution allowed
"personalities" to supersede institutions, and made it all
too easy for the GOR to accomplish the authoritarian
backsliding that has marked the past five to ten years.
"Either we have real control over the executive or fake
control" over the executive, Rumyantsev said, "and now we
have fake control."

Cynicism trumps rule of law
--------------


4. (C) Former Yabloko State Duma Deputy Viktor Sheynis, also
one of the Constitution's authors, complained to the liberal
daily Kommersant on December 11 that the Constitution "plays
a second-rate role, or even none at all," in relations
between the "powers that be" and society. Sheynis attributed
this state of affairs to "an unspoken agreement" in which
people's attitude toward the government is, "Do what you have
to do; just provide us with a relatively stable life."
Lyudmila Alekseyeva of Moscow Helsinki Group pointed out that
the governments of Stalin and Brezhnev also had
constitutions, and that "people are used to the existence of
this document that politicians regularly refer to," but that
has little to do with the actual life where the rules are
entirely different." The irrelevance of these de jure rules
to people's de facto everyday life has given rise to an
alienating gap between average people and public
institutions. Rumyantsev asserted that a "parallel society"
now exists alongside the state, consisting of a cynical
populace -- especially among the youth -- that "does not
believe in anything," and uses the Internet to communicate
while ignoring state-run television (a point that
Nezavisimaya Gazeta editor Konstantin Remchukov echoed in a
December 22 interview with Ekho Moskvy).


5. (C) Rumyantsev believes that this disconnect "could lead
to serious consequences," and bemoans the loss of rules in
everyday Russian life. As he sees it, the lack of rule of
law has resulted in "aggressiveness and barbarism," as people
have no respect for laws, and engage in "spontaneous anarchy
as a form of protest." Rumyantsev finds this situation
depressing, and he noted that this feeling of helpless
depression played a significant role in the recent death of
Yegor Gaydar, another architect of an envisioned liberal
state in Russia. The recent flap over the resignations of
two prominent judges, Anatoly Kononov (from the

MOSCOW 00003104 002 OF 003


Constitutional Court) and Vladimir Yaroslavtsev (from the
Council of Judges),who asserted that the Kremlin exercises
too much control over judges, only added to widespread
distrust of the Court as a Russian legal institution. (Note:
Constitutional Court Chairman Valeriy Zorkin attacked the two
judges in a blistering article alleging their involvement in
a conspiracy to "bring down Russia," which led to an equally
scathing article in Novaya Gazeta by independent journalist
Leonid Nikitinsky attacking Zorkin, as well as calls from
activists for Zorkin's resignation. End note.) Rumyantsev
told us that the GOR does indeed control the Constitutional
Court, and that "this is a different Zorkin" from the legal
thinker that he knew in 1993, one who "seriously believes
Putinism is good for the country."

All is not lost
--------------


6. (C) Some activists, however, take a more sanguine approach
to these problems. In a December 17 conversation with us,
Yuriy Dzhibladze of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights
noted that a recent Levada Center poll showed that one-third
of respondents would politically support human rights
advocate Andrey Sakharov if he were still alive. While
acknowledging that some of Sakharov's posthumous support
might relate to his work on the Soviet atomic bomb,
Dzhibladze still saw this support as a potential wedge for
advocates of increased civil society freedoms. Given that
somewhere between ten and fifteen percent of people
consistently support liberal values in Russian polls,
Dzhibladze sees his task as overcoming despair, cynicism, and
apathy, and "giving these people a feeling of empowerment,"
which then would snowball into a greater movement. He
estimated the group of people now active as a few thousand,
but asserted that the potential number is much larger. Ekho
Moskvy reported on December 22 that according to VTsIOM, the
percentage of Russians demanding freedom of thought and of
expression had increased from 19 percent in 2003 to 32
percent in 2009.


7. (C) As a veteran of twenty years in defending human
rights, Dzhibladze recognized the limits on what he can
accomplish, saying, "I think we're bound to lose if we are a
small group fighting this huge state machinery." He
therefore advocates a new strategy for human rights activists
attempting to gain traction in society. He described a
project that he and fellow activist Grigoriy Shvedov (of
Memorial and Caucasian Knot) conducted several years ago in
three regions of the country to raise awareness of human
rights and the role of NGOs in defending them. Using
sociological polls, they found that in two of the regions
(Ryazan and Perm),they had achieved significant results (in
the third, Rostov, the results were less encouraging).
Dzhibladze concluded that, rather than give up hope
altogether, "I prefer to be naive and to say 'Go for it.'"
Obviously, he said, one must be realistic; but "now there is
a unique opportunity after ten years of stalemate." (Note:
He also asked for U.S. funding to carry out further projects
like the one above. End note.)


8. (SBU) Other commentators agree that the news is not all
bad. A December 11 editorial in the liberal,
business-oriented daily Vedomosti also noted that, "although
many criticize the Constitution for its emphasis on
Presidential power," it still provides for "fundamental
rights" such as rule of law, division of powers, and "a
priority for human rights." Others in the optimist camp
noted that 79 percent of those polled in the above VTsIOM
poll said that the Constitution is important and respected,
although given that they do not know its contents, and given
Alekseyeva's point about hypocrisy, this figure is less
impressive.

Comment
--------------


9. (C) Alekseyeva's point, that a Constitution is only a
piece of paper if it is not enforced, is a salient one. The
prognosis for significant increases in the rule of law in
Russia in the near term is bleak; average Russians are deeply
apathetic about politics; and the force of inertia is
powerful. Nonetheless, while active supporters of democratic
freedoms do not currently constitute a "silent majority,"
they still form a potentially significant percentage of
society. Activists who are prepared to accept slow,
incremental changes can build on this support with a
carefully crafted strategy to educate people about their
Constitutional rights. The same polls that show indifference
to the Constitution also show that the younger generation has
become accustomed to such rights as the individual freedom of
expression or freedom of travel. As disappointing as recent

MOSCOW 00003104 003 OF 003


years have been, Russia is highly unlikely to revert to its
Soviet form. As President Medvedev himself has acknowledged,
Russia has nowhere to go but forward.

Rubin