CIAO DATE: 02/02

Russian Democracy: Is There a Future? (Event Transcript)

Transcript by Danielle Lussier

Introduction

On behalf of the Strengthening Democratic Institutions Project, I would like to welcome you to our seminar. Michael McFaul is going to lead us in a discussion entitled, "Russian Democracy: Is there a future?" This is a topic that SDI has been following through our publications and programs for over ten years now. SDI's current thoughts on this topic are outlined in our publication, Russia Watch. The lead article, "Buttressing Russia's Democratic Freedoms" outlines some of our thoughts on this topic.

In ongoing efforts to deepen democracy in Russia and to build barriers against potential democratic backsliding, SDI is engaging in discussions, like the one today with our colleagues, as we develop ideas for initiatives that can be taken in Russia and initiatives that can be taken by internal actors outside of Russia to try to deepen democracy in Russia. We are pleased to have the opportunity for this seminar today, and we welcome input from all of you as we go forward in the coming weeks and months.

Today we are very fortunate to have Michael McFaul join us in this ongoing discussion about the future of Russian democracy. Mike is a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an Assistant Professor at Stanford University. He is probably one of the most well known commentators on Russian political events. He also works as a consultant for many agencies including USAID, the National Democratic Institute and CBS News. As many of you know, his work focuses on Russian politics and electoral behavior, political and economic reform in post-communist countries and US-Russian relations. Together with Tim Colton at the Davis Center, Mike has directed a project involving public opinion surveys of the Russian electorate. In today's talk he will draw on some of the recently available data about attitudes toward democracy and democratic institutions in Russia.

As those of you who know Mike well are aware, he is extremely prolific. So I am not going to try to list all of the numerous books and articles that he has written. But I would like to draw your attention to a few which are particularly relevant to our topic today. Recently, Mike joined the other experts at the Russian and Eurasian Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to publish an excellent report called "An Agenda for Renewal: US-Russian Relations." This report outlines opportunities for the new administrations of both the US and Russia to renew their relationship and makes some concrete recommendations for US policy in that regard. In the summer issue of Demokratizatsiya, Mike McFaul and Sarah Mendelson published an article called, "Russian Democracy: A US National Interest." It outlines the case for why democracy and helping to strengthen democracy in Russia is an important item on the US national agenda. This summer we can look forward to his next book which is called Russia's Unfinished Transition: Political Change Under Gorbachev and Yeltsin."

I would like to thank you, Mike, for coming. We will begin the seminar with a presentation from Mike, and then we will open it to discussion and question and answer.

— Melissa Carr, Program Director

Full Text of Transcript (pdf)