Should People in Democratic Glass Houses Throw Stones?

By Patrick Basham

	Should People in Democratic Glass Houses Throw Stones?
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The neoconservative call to ostracise Russia by kicking her out of the G8 and denying her membership in the World Trade Organisation is deeply mistaken. Washington’s desire to lash out economically and diplomatically at Russian misbehavior in the Caucasus is trumping rational thinking on the future of a vital strategic relationship.

Washington’s fundamental error is to mislabel Russia as a democratic country in the 1990s that suddenly turned undemocratic during the past decade. It is mistakenly presumed, therefore, that Russia can be incentivised to appreciate the error of her recently authoritarian ways and sheepishly return to a state of democratic bliss and constructive multilateralism.

The trouble is that post-Communist Russia has never been democratic in the liberal, Western sense. Rather, in zigzag fashion the Russian political system has been slowly transitioning away from totalitarianism towards a democratic system compatible, one hopes, with Russian history and cultural traditions.

Consequently, asking in the wake of Russia’s intervention in Georgia, ‘Why did Russia go wrong?’ is the wrong question. The awkward question Americans should be asking, not of the Russians, but of themselves, is, ‘What can the West do to encourage and to sustain Russia’s political transition?’

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