The purpose of Putin

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Anatoly Slutsky presented the book titled "Putin and Fourth Russia. Does President have enough firmness for soft power?" The book, published by the anniversary of the President, has set a number of important issues before the President of the Russian Federation, without which, according to the author, he will not be able to revive the country. The book contains reflections on information resisting Kremlin politics and the ways of the historical movement in Russia. What drives the head of state in his decision-making, and what the prospects for the development of the country are - the new book can probably help find the answers to these questions.

“I ask you not to accuse me of my immodesty, but I'm at an age when I can quietly and safely say that this is really a very serious, deep book, which deals with various aspects of Putin’s activity during 12 years, and this book is made up of articles. I have been observing for Putin for a long time. I do not know Putin himself, I've never seen him, I do not depend on him. I represent the civil society in its pure form. Who am I anyway? I'm a writer. My book raises very fundamental questions,” Slutsky says.

“Fourth Russia” means ethnocultural analysis of the tandem, relationship between Medvedev and Putin. “I mean ethnocultural analysis, not political one, that everyone knows, but ethno-cultural one. For example, let us consider such a thing as the development of communications, new types of communications that are coming. You know the special attention paid to this by Medvedev, who met with Zuckerberg. People call him “a fan of IPhone”. He considers this communication as a technical means for a more logical entry for Russia into the world. That, in general, is indeed so. Putin sees the same subject very differently. He sees it as a way, I will not go into detail here, to wake up millions of young men and women who live in remote provinces, who cannot reach the center of attraction of culture, politics and so on, and through the Internet, they can join the stream of world affairs, world culture and so on. That is, we see the rise of the province.”

“The second issue is "Does the president have enough firmness to soft power?" Soft power is of the utmost importance not only for external issues mentioned by Putin, but also for domestic. I have to say that in recent years, the last seven years, despite my age, I was involved in dozens of round tables and conferences which there were and are discussions on all these issues around the world - from Australia to Honolulu, including Brazil, Qatar, let alone Geneva and Strasbourg, Vienna and Warsaw. I very well understand this topic. I want to tell you one example – by the way, it is mentioned in the book. I attended one of the round tables in Strasbourg, as the representative of the Russian world, we went there only for Russian money, so we were free in our statements. And some human rights activists came there, who were invited at the expense of foreign funding. And one young woman, a member of the Presidential Council, took the floor and said that she struggled for the separation of Chechnya from Russia, for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from South Ossetia and so on like that. Well, of course, I had to take part in the discussions.

There is the same question: does the president have enough firmness for this soft power in order to achieve a result by persuasion without tightening the screws. I carefully follow all the actions of Putin, all that is happening in Russia. I'm saying what Putin must do if he wants to get what he wants. In my view, the purpose of Putin is to go down in history as the leader of Russia's revival. And I imagine very well the coming years in Russia.”