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On February 14th, Russian President Vladimir Putin held his last annual press conference in the Kremlin. Xinhua News Agency reporter Shen Bohan photo
It is still some time before Putin officially leaves the Russian presidency in May. He will almost certainly play a key role in Russian domestic politics after he leaves the presidency, so now is not the right time to make a final decision on Putin. However, scholars and media from all over the world can’t wait to discuss Putin’s legacy. This is probably because Putin can indeed leave a lot to Russia, because common sense tells us that it is not necessary for a person with few words to discuss the legacy issue early.
Several years later, when historians look back on Russia, they will often mention this era that laid a deep imprint on Putin. At the end of Putin’s presidency and the end of 2007, Time magazine awarded Putin the person of the year in 2007. This is not an honor, nor does it express an approval. After all, Hitler and Stalin were also elected as Time magazine’s people of the year in history. But this is at least a kind of cognition, about the world and the people and things that change it-whether they are good or bad. As Time magazine wrote in commenting on Putin, "Putin succeeded in bringing Russia back to the ranks of world powers despite sacrificing some principles that freedom-loving people respected."
Time magazine’s annual comments on Putin actually represent two different evaluations of Putin’s legacy at present. Those who agree with Putin emphasize that under his leadership, Russia’s domestic political situation has changed from chaos to governance, its economy has changed from recession to prosperity, its residents’ income has increased, and people’s hearts have gathered together, thus changing its image of being weak in the international arena and playing a colorful role as a big country. Critics focus on Russia’s "retrogression of democracy", rigged elections, suppressed opposition parties, controlled media, oil giants deprived of their property, intimidation of neighboring countries and increasingly tense relations with the western world.
According to Andy Kaczynski, a famous American expert on Russia, it is difficult for people to reach a consensus on how to look at Russia. The image of Moscow in the western perspective has never been so "polarized", but the main differences exist between enterprises, investment companies, politicians and non-governmental organizations. The former is full of confidence in Russia, while the latter is suspicious of Russia.
Indeed, even people who are biased against Russia and Putin probably can’t deny the remarkable economic achievements made by Russia during Putin’s administration. As Kaczynski said, back in 1999, probably no one expected that Russia’s gross domestic product had quadrupled in face value today, and residents’ income had quadrupled, making Russian stocks one of the hottest stocks in the world. The negative evaluation of Putin’s legacy is mainly concentrated in Russia’s domestic political field. In fact, since Putin took office, with the deviation and return of Russian domestic political development to tradition, the western attacks on Putin have been endless. As Putin’s term of office is coming to an end, in the eyes of some politicians, perhaps Putin, as a national leader, is about to withdraw from the historical stage, and the attack on him is even more unscrupulous. For example, in the ongoing presidential primary election in the United States, Hillary Clinton attacked Putin as a soulless person, claiming that whenever the name Putin was mentioned, the three letters "K,G,B G and B" appeared in her mind.
It doesn’t matter whether Hillary attacked Putin for the needs of election politics or because of different values, but it may be a misjudgment if she thinks that Putin’s political influence in Russia will end with the end of his presidency. It’s not that he will probably become the prime minister of the government, nor that the next Russian president will be chosen by him personally and follow him for a long time, but that the idea of bringing benefits to the Russian people and making the Russian country strong will continue. This is the idea of "a strong country", establishing a strong state power system at home and pursuing a strong foreign policy.
At the last annual press conference held by Putin on February 14th, when asked about his legacy and the most important achievements, Putin replied that he had achieved economic reconstruction and centralized authority in a broken and impoverished country. Obviously, apart from being confident in the economic achievements he has made during his term of office, Putin does not deny his political ambitions because of the attacks from the West.
There is such a dialogue in Brecht’s play Galileo, in which Andrea said, "A country without heroes is sad." Galileo replied, "No! A country that needs a hero is sad. " Who is right or wrong, let alone. In the eyes of most Russians, Putin is a hero, Russia has this hero, and Russia also needs this hero. (Yuan Shengyu, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law)
Editor: Li Xiuwei
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